


A Different Start

by EzraVerwayn



Category: Pocket Monsters | Pokemon - All Media Types
Genre: Aura - Freeform, Aura!Ash, Legendaries, M/M, Slash, Smart!Ash, comashipping - Freeform, myths
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-10-12
Updated: 2021-01-30
Packaged: 2021-03-08 03:07:27
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 21
Words: 75,889
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26964913
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EzraVerwayn/pseuds/EzraVerwayn
Summary: What if Ash was more knowledgeable about Pokémon and the world around him before starting his journey? What if he got an opportunity like no other an decided to take it? Well here's to a different start with our Ash! Slash! Comashipping!
Relationships: Satoshi | Ash Ketchum/Shinji | Paul
Comments: 27
Kudos: 186





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This is cross posted to my Fanfiction site under the same name as it is on here. A few things before you begin reading. Ash is older at the start of his journey than in cannon. He is 16 years of age. Ash will be a bottom in his relationships. He will also capture pokemon he had not during the cannon episodes. He will know or be taught how to use Aura since I feel like they really failed in using it to its potential in the episodes. If there are anymore details I'll be sure to address them as they come up.
> 
> Main Pairing: AshxPaul
> 
> Side pairing: AshxGary (One sided on Gary's part)
> 
> Rating: M (to be safe)
> 
> Disclaimer: I do not own pokemon it belongs to Game Freak, Nintendo, Creatures, The Pokemon Company, etc, nor do I write this for profit. This is for entertainment use only.
> 
> Enjoy! And don't forget to leave a review!

Today, he decided as he walked down a well worn path, was the day his new chapter in life would begin. He did his tests and passed the theory, written, and physical parts of the tests with flying colors. Then yesterday he had gotten confirmation that he could begin his journey. That brought him to today, walking down the path, to Samuel Oak Laboratory and PokeFields.

Today he would get his starter and set off into the unknown to discover the lands for himself and also to discover himself.

He trudged along uphill to the front doors where he could see three other trainers that wold start with him. Two males and a female. One of the males had spiky auburn hair and black eyes, his name was Gary Oak, his best friend and rival for the past ten years. The other male was Alex Grey his neighbors nephew, he had blond hair and brown eyes. The last trainer, Eliza Holmes, a newer resident of Pallet, she had light red hair and green eyes adorning a freckled face.

"Ash!" he heard Gary call out and waved down at him once his rival saw him, "About time you got here! Gramps wouldn't open the doors until all of us got here."

Ash Ketchum, dark black hair and red tinted honey whiskey eyes, laughed as he met up with the trio. "Sorry sorry," he said as he put his hands in his pocket, "You know how Mom is." His Mom, fiercely protective of him, wanted to try and talk him out of going once again.

"Ah that explains it then," he said as the doors to the building finally opened. Standing there was a tall older man with greying blond hair and kind black eyes, this is Professor Samuel Oak.

"Come in! Come in! I bet you all can't wait to get on the road," he said as he ushered the four of them in. The layout was a simple huge room with a few closed off rooms for lab work, but the majority of the room was an open concept. As they walked in Ash looked around and saw quite a few pokemon he knew were not from around Pallet and became even more eager to get out there and begin to befriend them all. "Now, as we do have one extra trainer in this batch of beginners, I wasn't able to prepare another regular starter. I will have to ask one of you to stay behind to get another starter for you. Any volunteers?" he asked once he had to trainers stop in front of a machine that held three balls.

The fours stayed silent as they looked among themselves wondering and hoping someone would speak up. It seemed like each of them had their hopes up in wanting one of the starters. Ash took a deep breath before speaking up without looking at the other three, "I'll stay behind." He didn't let any emotion fill the words as he couldn't believe he had said them.

He saw Oak look at him then smile in pride, "Very well dear boy," he said as he gestured for the other relieved three trainers to the machine, "In each of these balls holds a pokemon. There is the grass type, Bulbasaur. The water type pokemon, Squirtle. And last, but not least, the fire type pokemon Charmander. Eliza, ladies first."

She stepped forward a little hesitantly to the machine before picking up the first ball. She pressed the button and in a beam of red light a small green leafy pokemon was left standing once the light faded. The Bulbasaur let out a small grunt as it moved to inspect its new trainer before giving her a small nod.

Alex was next to step up and he immediately went for the last ball holding the Charmander. In the same flash of red light popped out a small orange lizard with sharp teeth and claws with a burning tail. The little lizard let out a small growl as it approached its trainer already accepting that Alex was his.

Gary was left for last. He sauntered up to the table and picked up the ball and with the smirk on his face he was happy he got the Squirtle. The small turtle like pokemon crossed his arms with a smirk on its own face. Ash was glad to see that they got along and that Gary wasn't treating it like he would have if Gary got him when he was younger.

"Now," Oak said breaking the moments between trainer and pokemon, "You three are almost ready to start your journeys. If you accept it, I want all of you to have a pokedex. It'll record pokemon you encounter and help you along the way as well as having a built in map of the region."

The three readily agreed to accept the device. Ash wondered briefly why he wasn't getting one, but brushed it off seeing as he hadn't even gotten his pokemon yet. He watched as trainer and pokemon left one right after the other leaving him and the Professor alone in their area of the lab.

"Ash," Oak began to say as the older man moved to stand in front of the teen. He placed his hands on Ash's shoulders as he spoke, "Staying back like that and giving up the opportunity to get a regional starter was really brave of you to do. I am really proud of you."

Ash had to hold in tears in his eyes as he heard this. Oak, growing up, had been his only male parental figure he ever had and to hear him say he was proud of him. Well, that really made him emotional. "Thank you," he said softly as he gave the older man a smile.

"No need for thanks, Ash. Now, I believe I said I would give you another pokemon; however, I have another proposition for you," he said as he guided Ash to the pastures in the back. The land Oak owned for the pokemon spread for miles and miles giving pokemon room to move and roam as well as live in a space that was perfect for them.

"What is it?" he asked as he looked up at him once they were outside.

"I want you to become a OFRT for me," Oak said as he gestured for Ash to sit on one of the picnic tables.

"OFRT?" he asked sitting at one of the table with an umbrella. He placed his hands on top of the table and clasped them together.

"On the Field Researcher and Trainer," he clarified sitting across from the teen, "You'll be able to go on your journey as you planned, but as a OFRT you'll have special tasks you would have to do for me, but you'll also have many privileges others don't. I already offered it to Gary, but he turned me down on it."

"What kind of tasks?" he asked as his interests were peaked.

"Such as having to transport certain pokemon and eggs or traveling to different regions to other Professors to get research or other things from them that can't be sent through the systems. Sometimes you'll be called in to handle a rogue pokemon or to research a certain habitat. Things like that," Oak explained as he pulled a tablet from his inner coat pocket to show him the different things and videos other trainers from over the years had given him, "You'll be payed of course. I am not asking you to do this for free. The limit for your team will be raised from six to twelve, and you'll also get full perks at the Centers for your pokemon as well as a TM pass."

"TM pass?" Ash asked as he hadn't heard of anything called a TM pass before.

"You'll get a pass so you can purchase up to five TMs a month," Oak said as a smile crossed his old face seeing that Ash was getting interested in it, "It replenishes every month."

He thought for a moment before nodding, "Okay I'll do it," he agreed as he took a deep breath, "But I haven't got a pokemon yet."

Oak smiled and got up, "Let's go back in. I have got the perfect pokemon for you," he said as he started walking back to the door with Ash following behind him, "Now, this particular pokemon I have had in my possession for a few weeks now. I caught him chewing on my electrical wires causing our systems to glitch. He wasn't friendly at all in the beginning to humans, but we got through to him. I was able to get him to agree to becoming a starter for a trainer."

"What kind of pokemon is it?" he asked as they entered a room Ash had never been in before. It was full of open electrical units and generators that fed electric pokemon.

"A Pikachu," he said as said pokemon approached the two human. It was average in size and covered in yellow fur with two brown stripes along its back and a lightning bolt tail. What caught Ash's attention was Pikachu's eye. A sharp painful looking scar ran straight through the right eye, but miraculously it didn't seem to have affected the eye at all.

"What happened?" Ash asked as he looked between the pokemon and the Professor.

"It appeared that Pikachu had a previous trainer. Not a very good one at that. From what we could gather the trainer abandoned Pikachu after a battle that left Pikachu with the scar," Oak said as Pikachu jumped onto the table to get a closer look at Ash, "When Pikachu was friendly enough with us he let us take care of his eye. It was badly infected and we had to be permitted to use Ditto Cells to try and save the eye. As you can see it worked."

Ash looked down at the curious Pikachu before slowly reaching forwards and holding out his hand palm down for Pikachu to sniff him. "Pikachu," he said softly as he smiled down at him, "Want to go on an adventure with me?"

The yellow mouse tilted his head slightly and a few silent moments passed before he gave Ash a small nod making Ash beam down at him. Oak smiled and nodded at the duo, "I knew you two would be just fine together. Now, as you have accepted to being a OFRT for me, instead of just getting a standard pokedex you'll get something a bit better as well." He left the room leaving Ash and Pikachu to hurry and catch up to the fast old man.

"What do you mean?" He asked as he caught up to Oak, "I thought that the pokedexes were all Kanto had."

"That is true yes, but recently the League has been in a trade agreement with the Unova region seeing as we need help getting a little more technology advanced," Oak said as they stepped into his office, "Each Professor and Researcher in Kanto has been given a trial time to use these," he pulled out a device from the safe he kept behind his desk, "Xtransceiver."

"Xtransceiver?" he asked as he hadn't heard of anything like it before. Pikachu jumped up on the desk and sniffed the device curiously.

"Yes, a device that a user wears on their wrists that can take pictures, send and receive messages, take calls, has a built in map, and can access the PC system," Oak said as he held the device out, "And now that you are a OFRT this one is yours."

Ash took the watch like device and carefully attached it to his wrist. He pressed a button on the outside of it making the screen light up and an extra screen pop out of the side. "Woah," he said as he the screen showed him the time along with a few little apps showing a telephone, a speech bubble, an egg, and a camera, "Thanks Professor! This will be so helpful."

"You're welcome my lad," he said smiling down at him, "Now that you have your equipment and your partner, you are ready to begin your journey. So go forth Ash and explore to your hearts content. Just remember to call from time to time and don't forget your mother."

Ash nodded as Pikachu jumped onto his shoulder. "I'll call soon! I'll go see Mom before I go. My bag is still there," he said as he pocketed the pokedex the professor handed him. He said his goodbyes before hurrying out of the building. He squinted at the bright sun for a moment before coming to a stop at the bottom of the hill. On one end of the road he saw the entrance to Pallet while the other led to the Route leading out and into the wilderness.

"Well Pikachu, shall I see what this can do?" he asked as he took out the pokedex and waved it slightly to his new partner. The yellow mouse nodded and jumped to the ground to sit still for Ash. Ash knelt in front of Pikachu and readied his pokedex to scan Pikachu.

_Pikachu #025_

_The electric mouse pokemon. It's in its nature to store electricity. It feels stressed now and then if it's unable to fully discharge the electricity. While sleeping, it generates electricity in the sacs in its cheeks. If it's not getting enough sleep, it will be able to use only weak electricity._

_This pokemon is male and knows the moves: Iron Tail, Thunderbolt, Quick Attack, Electro Ball, Double Team, Agility, and Thunder. It's ability is Static._

Ash whistled as he read over the information, "That is an impressive move pool," he said as he reached forward and rubbed Pikachu's ear softly making the electric mouse let out a soft sigh, "Let's get going to my house to get my things. I want to get outta here soon."

Pikachu nodded and hopped up onto his shoulder as he didn't know the direction to his trainers den. Ash hurried down the road to Pallet. He greeted neighbors and pokemon alike until he made it to his house. It was a ordinary two story house with a large garden in the back. Standing in the garden was his mother's pokemon Mr. Mime, "Hello Mr. Mime!" Ash greeted as he walked past with a small wave. He heard the pokemon greet back as he entered the house.

"Mom I'm back!" he announce as he walked into the house. His Mom, with long auburn hair and kind honey whiskey eyes, greeted him from the kitchen.

"Oh Ashy! You got a Pikachu?!" she said as he entered the kitchen to the smell of his mom's cookies.

"Yup!" he said as he smiled and then began explaining the opportunity he had gotten from Professor Oak.

"Just be careful," she asked as she saw how excited her son was. She packed a few cookies in a bag along with some sandwiches and other things for Ash as well as a few on the road cook books showing him things he can make with things in the wilderness. He hurried and grabbed his things before giving his mom a hug and a kiss goodbye.

"Well, Pikachu," he said as he reached the beginning of the Route out of Pallet he looked at Pikachu, who was perched on his shoulder, "Let's go on an adventure."


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> What if Ash was more knowledgeable about Pokémon and the world around him before starting his journey? What if he got an opportunity like no other an decided to take it? Well here's to a different start with our Ash! Slash! Comashipping!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is cross posted to my Fanfiction site under the same name as it is on here. A few things before you begin reading. Ash is older at the start of his journey than in cannon. He is 16 years of age. Ash will be a bottom in his relationships. He will also capture pokemon he had not during the cannon episodes. He will know or be taught how to use Aura since I feel like they really failed in using it to its potential in the episodes. If there are anymore details I'll be sure to address them as they come up.
> 
> Main Pairing: AshxPaul
> 
> Side pairing: AshxGary (One sided on Gary's part)
> 
> Rating: M (to be safe)
> 
> Disclaimer: I do not own pokemon it belongs to Game Freak, Nintendo, Creatures, The Pokemon Company, etc, nor do I write this for profit. This is for entertainment use only.
> 
> Enjoy! And don't forget to leave a review!

Ash and Pikachu had kept walking through the last half of the day only stopping for bathroom breaks or for food before continuing on their journey. On the route they were on it was blessedly covered with trees to break up the sun's harsh rays. Ash and Pikachu had spotted a few pokemon and a few that would actually let Ash scan them with his pokédex after offering them a bit of food. It wasn't until the sun started to set that Ash and his mouse ran into a rather large pinkish purple pokemon.

It had large ears with a rather large horn and a good set of teeth. Ash could see its barbs stand on point as they approached as it tried to make itself seem more dangerous so Pikachu wouldn't attack it. Ash was shocked at it since Nidoran were usually skittish pokemon that ran away from others not in its herd. "Pikachu?" he asked as he looked at his buddy. Pikachu eyed the pokemon before nodding and getting in a fighting stance.

"Alright! Let's start with Quick Attack! Avoid the barbs!" he called out as he moved back slightly to give Pikachu room to fight. This was also the first time he fought with the yellow mouse. With a small growl Pikachu rushed the Nidoran causing the pinkish pokemon to try and dodge the attack, but Pikachu was a bit too fast as the yellow mouse tackled it in its side. The Nidoran let out a small squeak as it was thrown into a tree with a loud bang.

"Now! Pikachu use a low powered Thunder!" Ash said as he eyed the slightly trembling pokemon as the Nidoran got up from the harsh attack. The mouse charged electricity making his cheek sacs glow before letting out a screech with his lighting striking the Nidoran. It wasn't too long after that; that the Nidoran fainted with slight twitches to his muscles. Ash grabbed a pokeball and threw it giving small thanks to the homing device that was in the machines system as the red and white ball tapped the downed pokemon to suck it in.

He watched the ticking pokeball in anticipation as Pikachu sat back on his hind feet. After three clicks the red light on the balls button faded and clicked signaling a successful capture. "Yes!" Ash said as he pumped his fist. He walked over and grabbed the ball before putting it in his ball belt, "Good job Pikachu! We got a new friend!" he said as Pikachu jumped up on his shoulder with a satisfied coo.

Ash decided to wait to release Nidoran after he was healed at a Center since he didn't really have any potions. His little town didn't have a PokéMart in it and he forgot to remind his mom to get him some before he left. He did keep an eye out on helpful berries out in the wild and if he found an Oran berry he would then release Nidoran to officially meet his new pokemon.

"Let's camp here Pikachu," he said as he stopped in a little clearing. It was bare and void of any evidence of pokémon so Ash thought it would be a great place to camp. He quickly gathered some wood so he could cook some food for them both since he wanted to save his gas camp cooker in case it rained and he needed to camp out in a cave. "What do you want to eat?" he asked Pikachu as he pulled out a few berries he gathered along the way, unfortunately he didn't find any Oran berries or any Cheri berries, but he did have Nanabs, Sitrus, and Pecha. Unfortunately he couldn't use the Sitrus on Nidoran since the pokemon needed to be awake for it.

Ash yawned and stretched as he watched Pikachu choose a Sitrus berry for him to chop and sprinkle on his food. He quickly chopped it and added to some pokéfood before getting his own food. Both human and pokémon scarfed their food down before tucking in for the night.

* * *

The next morning held no excitement for Ash and his pokemon as he groggily got up from where he slept and packed his things so they could head out of their journey. Pikachu was more awake than Ash and so the yellow mouse took it upon himself to keep a look out as his barely awake trainer started to head to Viridian.

They battled a few times during their walk with other trainers and managed to get enough money to get a few supplies when they reached Viridian. They also came across a herbalist that was selfless enough to heal their poisonous teammate so now Ash was able to train Nidoran. After making sure Nidoran wanted to stay with him, since he would never force a pokemon to do something they didn't want, he scanned the pokemon.

_Nidoran- Entry #32_

_The Poison Pin pokemon Nidoran has developed muscles for moving its ears. Thanks to them, the ears can be freely moved in any direction and even the slightest sound does not escape this Pokémon's notice. When angered or in defense barbs extend out from the body and drip in harsh poison. The size of the horn indicates how strong the poison is._

_This Nidoran is male and knows the moves, Leer, Peck, Double Kick, Quick Attack, and Poison Sting with an egg move Confusion. Nidoran also has the ability, Poison Point._

"We'll aren't you a strong one?" Ash commented as he knelt in front of the purple-ish pokemon making the pokemon preen with the attention. Ash reached out and scratched behind one of the large ears being careful not to touch the barbs. "Let's get going. I want to get to Viridian before nightfall," he said as he stood, "Do you want to stay out with us or be in your pokeball?"

Nidoran tilted his head before turning around to walk in the direction Ash was heading in. "Walk it is," Ash said as he smiled and slowed his pace so Nidoran, with his stubby legs, could keep up with them. They walked leisurely through the path enjoying the sun and the breeze as well as a few more battles before they finally made it to Viridian.

The town itself was small, but it was still bigger than Pallet. In the center of the town was the City Hall where people could go complain about things, or that was what his mother had told him. Towards the back of the town was the large Gym that was suppose to be the first Gym trainers fought, but the Leader of the Gym decided that they had to get all the other badges before challenging him. From what he remembered there was also a Move Tutor, an Academy, and of course the PokéCenter and Mart.

Ash hummed as he made his way to the Center so he could get Pikachu and Nidoran fully healed before moving onto the Viridian forest. As he entered the large red building the power went out sending the trainers in the building into a frenzy and Nurse Joy into despair as she tried to get the power back on.

"Oh no! Oh no!" he heard her cry out as he walked up to the counter.

"Nurse Joy! Are you alright?" he called out as he put his hands on the counter and leaned forward. Pikachu hopped off his shoulder and landed beside his hands as his ears twitched as if he was trying to listen for something.

"I'm not alright! The back up generator is out and all of the critical Pokémon depend on the equipment to keep them going," she said as she walked out of the back to standing before Ash, "I can't even get them transferred to other Centers!"

Ash hummed softly as he tried to think of something he could do to help, but before he could suggest anything the double glass doors shattered as a BOOM! Sounded from the front of the Center. He turned around in time to see bits of glass fly towards him.

"Tsss!" he hissed out as he brought his arms up to protect his face only to get his arms slashed with the glass and other debris. In the smoke he could make out three figures walking towards them.

_Prepare for trouble!_

_And make it double!_

_To protect the world from devastation!_

_To unite all peoples within our nation!_

_To denounce the evils of truth and love!_

_To extend our reach to the stars above!_

_Jessie!_

_James!_

_Team Rocket blasts off at the speed of light!_

_Surrender now, or prepare to fight!_

_Meowth!_

_That's right!_

Ash lowered his bleeding arms in confusion before the smoke started to clear and the three figures became visible to his eyes. A woman, long redish pink hair and clear blue eyes, stood beside a man, with lavender blue hair and greens eyes, and a Meowth. "Who are you?" Ash asked as Pikachu moved to stand in front of him while Nidoran hissed and extended his barbs that were starting to drip with poison, "What are you doing here?"

He heard the woman giggle obnoxiously before he was given an answer, "We're Team Rocket and we're here to steal the pokémon in the Center. So you, little Twerp, can back off and let us do our job," she said as she grabbed her pokéball.

The pokémon she released was snakelike in appearance. Its purple scales shone brightly in the florescent lights with a yellow band of scales around its neck with a yellow rattler and bright poison yellow eyes. It rose up glaring at them with a loud hiss and a show of it's fangs dripping in poison.

The lavender haired male smirked and pulled out his own pokéball and threw it releasing another purple pokémon. Its ball like form floated in the air covering in a green gaseous air that smelled foul. On its belly was a white skull and cross bones.

"Now, Ekans darling, take care of the Twerp and his pathetic pokémon. We've got a job to do," she said as she brought her hand up to her face as a sinister smile graced her lips. Her snake pokémon lunged forward quickly barring its fangs making both Ash and Pikachu dodge out of the way.

"Pikachu! Quick Attack then Thunderbolt!" Ash yelled as Nidoran also managed to get out of the snakes way only to get in the way of Koffing, "Nidoran use Quick Attack then Double Kick! Get it away from you!" With a sharp grunt his pokémon did as ordered and with a dash dodged the floating gaseous ball before dealing an attack on it making it go flying into its trainer.

"Oof!" the blue haired man grunted as he was squashed under his pokémon.

"Pikachu! Iron Tail then Thunderbolt! Send them flying!"

Pikachu growled an affirmative before smacking his silver glowing tail into the snake sending it into the female trainer and the Meowth. Pikachu crouched in front of the group as he gathered electricity in his cheek pouches before yelling and releasing a thunderbolt large enough the group went flying and the power to the building came back on. The yellow mouse shook its electrified fur as the smoke cleared out of the room showing the devastation of the room.

Chairs and couches were ripped and strewn around the floor as were glass from the windows and the door. Deep scratches tainted the usually pristine floor and blood dripped from his arm staining the floor. Nurse Joy, who had hid in the back approached him with hesitancy as she saw the still irritated Pikachu and Nidoran, whose barbs dripped in poison.

"Dear?" she said softly as she stopped a couple of feet away from him before she saw the blood dripping from his arm prompting her to say, "I may not be a doctor for humans, but I can treat your arm so it doesn't get infected until you get to Pewter."

"Thanks. I would appreciate that," he said as his arms gave him a harsh throb now that the adrenaline was leaving his system. He clicked his tongue making his pokémon relax with the soft sound. Ash had been using different tones of tongue clicks as training for his pokémon just in case he was in a situation that he wasn't able to talk. He followed the Nurse to the back where she pulled a few bits of glass from both of his arms before cleaning them with alcohol and wrapped them for him. He looked at them and watched as the pristine white bandages slowly turned red with blood.

"The bleeding should stop in a bit now that there is some pressure on the wounds. Later tonight before you go to bed be sure to change the bandages and put some more of the ointment on it," she said handing him a jar of white cream that faintly smelled like mint and aloe.

"Thank you," he said as he took the jar and gave the Nurse a smile, "Are you going to be alright? Do I need to stay any longer?"

Nurse Joy hummed softly and thought for a moment, "Well, you'll need to stay to give an officer your statement about what happened," she said as she stood up and led Ash to the front where there were a few officers already in the building.

Ash sighed as he approached an officer and began telling her what happened and his involvement in it. He gave her his number in case they needed to reach him for anything before deciding to leave town, after buying some much needed supplies from the market, before his body made him want to stay to sleep in a bed.

It wasn't until about midday that he decided to stop for a break near a rather large body of water. If he didn't know any better he would have thought he was at an ocean rather than a lake seeing as he couldn't see the other side of the body of water. He hummed softly before sitting down by the water and took off his shoes and socks. Soaking his sore feet seemed like a good idea to him.

Ash sighed softly as he sipped his feet in the cool water relishing as the throbbing in his feet slowed down to a stop. He releasing his Nidoran as Pikachu went to sniff at a few things in bushes nearby. Nidoran plopped himself down beside Ash letting out a yawn as he watched his Trainer dig through his bag to grab his retractable fishing pole.

Ash baited his hook before casting his line. He hummed softly as he slightly moved his feet as he waited for a bite on his line. The sun shone through the leaves of the tree he sat under shading him, but also keeping him warm from the cool breeze. He watched Pikachu take a few sips of water before bounding off to play with some of the more brave wild pokémon that actually wanted to get close to a already caught pokémon with its trainer close by.

He waited for a while before his line was tugged hard enough to almost jerk his pole out of his hand. "Erk!" he grunted and gripped the pole hard and tugged it once before reeling in as fast as he could. He eased off when needed and reeled in when he felt slack and before he knew it he reeled in what caught his bait in the first place.

The pokémon's scales shown a bright blue and twinkled in the sunlight thanks to the water that coated the scales. It had three fin like appendages on either side of its face which held two bright red eyes. Its mouth extended from its face in an almost trumpet like appearance and its tail curled upwards towards its body with one singular fin on its back.

"Horsea?" Ash asked curiously as he knew Horseas were not usually found this far inland as they preferred the temperatures of the waters by the Seafoam Islands. "Wanna battle?" he asked as he saw the glare that the blue seahorse like pokémon gave him. The Horsea gave him a loud snort and blasted the area by his feet with a dark colored ink.

"You got it! Pikachu! To battle!" Ash commanded as he got out of the water and stepped away from the edge of the land to give his yellow mouse room to move. He would have let Nidoran battle, but unfortunately the poison pokémon doesn't have any ranged moves. "Pikachu! Let's give this Horsea a good battle," he said as he dipped his hat down a little lower to remove the glare from the water that shone in his eyes, "Use Double Team then Quick Attack! You need to keep away from any blasts of ink!"

Pikachu growled out an affirmative before copies of the yellow mouse appeared surrounding the duo. Pikachu kept the copies up as he appeared and tackled Horsea in different directions as he dodged blasts of ink and water. The Horsea seemed to get a bit irritated before it let out a medium sized bright orange ball.

Ash's eyes widened before yelling out, "Pikachu! Dodge that's Dragon Rage!" The yellow mouse squeaked out before rushing to the side letting his copies dissipate as he dodged the ball letting it blast onto the ground setting the grass ablaze and creating a small crater. "Pikachu let's end this before the forest is on fire," he said as he saw the spreading flames, "Use Thunder on the water!"

Pikachu nodded and charged his cheek pouches before sending a shock of electricity to the water making the Horsea twitch and cry out before falling unconscious and floating on the surface of the water. Ash quickly threw a pokéball at the Horsea. He held his breath as he watched the ball.

_Wobble._

_Wobble._

_Wobble._

_Ding!_

Ash smiled widely as he whooped in happiness, "Yes!" He waded out into the water to retrieve the ball before cupping his hands and threw water onto the grass to cool down the now dying embers. "Good job Pikachu," he said as he scratched his buddy behind his ears, "Nidoran. You'll have the next battle." He looked over and saw Nidoran perk up and give him a chirp.

"How about we officially meet our new teammate?" Ash asked as he moved to sit back on the edge of the bank. Nidoran chirped as Pikachu sat beside him on the grass. He smiled and threw the ball back towards the water and released the unconscious pokémon. After digging through his pack he grabbed a revive and a potion to heal any wounds. He first sprayed the potion before breaking the revive over the trumpet-like mouth.

After waiting a few moments, Ash was greeted with blinking red orbs looking up at him. "You feel any better?" he asked as he sat back to give the Horsea room to move around. The Horsea crooned softly before nodding, "May I scan you?" he asked as he showed the Horsea his pokédex. The creature looked at it with confusion before it nodded.

_Horsea- Entry #116_

_Horsea eats small insects and moss off of rocks. If the ocean current turns fast, this Pokémon anchors itself by wrapping its tail around rocks or coral to prevent being washed away. If Horsea senses danger, it will reflexively spray a dense black ink from its mouth and try to escape. This Pokémon swims by cleverly flapping the fin on its back._

_This Horsea is male and knows the moves, Bubble, Smokescreen, and Water Gun with an egg move, Dragon Rage. This Horsea has the ability, Swift Swim._

Ash hummed and nodded, "Well little guy, you are very very strong. Now we just need to get you evolved enough for you to be able to be out of water. Right now, I'll only be able to call you out when there's a body of water nearby." He smiled down at the Horsea as the small creature chirped and nodded.

Ash and his pokémon stayed in the area for a while longer until the sunlight began to fade. The small teen quickly got his tent set up and gave his pokemon some food before they went to bed. He sat in his sleeping bag side awake as he watched the moon ascend into the sky his thoughts raced through his head. He wondered briefly if he would be a good trainer but then shook his head before turning to lay on his side. His Pikachu stretched for a moment in his sleep before curling up into a ball and Ash couldn't help but smile and put his hand on the static-filled fur. He took a deep breath then closed his eyes as he let his body relax and fall into Morpheus' realm.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> What if Ash was more knowledgeable about Pokémon and the world around him before starting his journey? What if he got an opportunity like no other an decided to take it? Well here's to a different start with our Ash! Slash! Comashipping!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is cross posted to my Fanfiction site under the same name as it is on here. A few things before you begin reading. Ash is older at the start of his journey than in cannon. He is 16 years of age. Ash will be a bottom in his relationships. He will also capture pokemon he had not during the cannon episodes. He will know or be taught how to use Aura since I feel like they really failed in using it to its potential in the episodes. If there are anymore details I'll be sure to address them as they come up.
> 
> Main Pairing: AshxPaul
> 
> Side pairing: AshxGary (One sided on Gary's part)
> 
> Rating: M (to be safe)
> 
> Disclaimer: I do not own pokemon it belongs to Game Freak, Nintendo, Creatures, The Pokemon Company, etc, nor do I write this for profit. This is for entertainment use only.
> 
> Enjoy! And don't forget to leave a review!

Ash wiped his forehead of sweat as he looked down at his Xtransceiver to make sure he was on the correct path. He hummed softly letting his arm fall down to his side. It was the middle of the day and it was really hot with not a single breeze blowing through the trees making the forest he was in weirdly silent. Well, it was silent until he heard a feminine scream.

The scream even made his Pikachu perk up before running off to it making Ash follow quickly behind the yellow mouse. They rushed through trees and bushes until they made it to a large lake, though it wasn't as large as the lake he caught Horsea at, and a girl cowering in front of an angry Gyarados.

"Graaaaaa!"

"Pikachu! Quick Thunderbolt at the Gyarados!" Ash called out startling the girl and making the Gyarados turn to him. Pikachu let out an affirmative before shooting a high powered streak of lightning at the large water serpent making it shriek in pain. Ash watched out of the corner of his eye as his Pikachu shot bolt after bolt at the Gyarados as he helped the girl away from the water.

"You okay?" Ash asked looking her over for any injuries. Her orange hair, jean shorts, red suspenders, and yellow tank top were soaked, but he didn't see any injuries.

"Yeah, yeah," she said a little breathlessly as she clenched at his shirt, "Wh-What about your Pikachu?" She asked as she watched the little mouse tease the already angry Gyarados. The large water serpent had started attacking back sending large bouts of water trying to hit Pikachu.

"He's fine. He's just playing around," Ash said as he chuckled knowing his Pikachu was having some fun. During the last few days with Pikachu he knew the yellow mouse wasn't even using his full strength in the Thunderbolts. That was why he decided that Pikachu would be a last resort pokémon in gym battles until the others caught up with Pikachu in terms of strength. "Pikachu it's time to stop playing!" he called out and saw Pikachu send him an affirmative with a wag of his tail, "Volt Tackle! Send it back to the middle of the lake!"

The girl couldn't help, but think that it wasn't possible for a tiny pokémon like Pikachu to send a larger pokémon like Gyarados back that far until she actually saw the yellow mouse do it. "Kyaaa!" Pikachu yelled as he charged up electricity to surround his body before running and tackling Gyarados sending the twenty foot pokémon back towards the middle of the lake just like his trainer wanted. Pikachu waited tense at the edge of the lake in case Gyarados would come back, but after a few tense moments he relaxed and shook out his fur before turning around and ran back to his trainer.

"Good job," Ash said as he handed Pikachu an Oran berry. He gave the electric charged fur a scratch before turning to the girl. "I'm Ash," he said introducing himself as he held out a hand for her to shake.

"Misty," she said as she was helped to her feet before commenting in a slightly unbelievable voice, "Um that's one powerful mouse you got there."

"Thanks, but I can't be credited with any of it. I just got Pikachu a few days ago," Ash said as he watched Misty grab her things, "So how did you end up being almost eaten by an angry Gyarados?"

Misty shrugged on her bag as she folded her fishing pole and put it on a clip on her hip before responding, "I was fishing and got a bite. When I reeled it in it was Gyarados and none of the pokémon I have on hand could defeat it. I wasn't expecting a Gyarados to be in a lake that small. I thought they were all in oceans, but nonetheless thank you Ash for saving me. If it weren't for you I'd be Gyarados food."

"No problem," Ash said as he walked with her back to the path with Pikachu back on his shoulder, "I would suggest that you don't fish there until your pokémon are ready to fight it."

Misty couldn't help but nod and laugh before asking, "So you said you got Pikachu a few days ago, how long have you been a trainer? How did he get so powerful so quickly?"

Ash bit his lip as he reached up to scratch Pikachu behind his ear, "Professor Oak had him before I did, but before that Pikachu had a trainer that abandoned him after getting an injury. Pikachu survived fevered and infected until Professor Oak found him and got enough trust from Pikachu to help him. Professor Oak had to use Ditto Cells to heal him, but after being healed Pikachu agreed to be my pokémon," he explained as they walked down the path towards Pewter, "I'm kind of glad the trainer abandoned Pikachu, as bad as it is to say, but if they didn't I wouldn't have the opportunity to have such an amazing pokémon as Pikachu as one of my best friends."

He heard Pikachu chitter softly in his ear as he felt the yellow mouse nuzzle against his head making his hair stand a bit from the static. He knew his buddy felt the same, and he was glad that Pikachu gave human companionship a second chance. He cleared his throat softly as the atmosphere between the two humans and pokémon fell into a comfortable silence. They walked together for a few hours before the trail they were on split and they parted way from Misty who decided to go to another fishing location.

He bade her a farewell before walking the way his map told him would take him to Pewter. He checked the time on his watched and decided that he could talk a bit more since Pewter was so close and sure enough he made it to the town right before nightfall. "What do ya say Pikachu? To the PokéCenter first or see where the Gym is before going to the Center?" he asked Pikachu as he walked on cobbled streets.

"Kya," Pikachu cooed softly as he ruffled his fur and tapped Ash once on the head.

"The Center it is then," he said as he looked around for any signs for the Center and saw one to follow. It didn't take him long to find the red roofed building to enter. Going inside he was greeted with a cool breeze and loud chatter from a few trainers in the waiting area.

One trainer was a brunette with a large mouth and dark eyes while the other two trainers were identical to each other with blue hair and green eyes. He rolled his eyes at their loud chatter before ignoring them thus not seeing the brunette narrow his eyes at him. "Hello Nurse Joy," Ash said as he reached the counter and saw her coming from the back.

"Hello dear," she greeted with a smile, "How can I help you this evening?"

"Can I have a room?" he asked as he put his hands on the counter with his pokédex ready for when she needed it to sign him in for a room.

"Of course. I just need some form of identification," she said before being handed the 'dex, "Thank you." she slid the 'dex into a reader slot and signed him in before telling him his room number.

"Thanks Nurse Joy," he said taking back his 'dex and grabbing the key for his room. When he turned around he was greeted with the brunette and the twins that were talking loudly when he walked in.

"Got a 'tude with us kid?" the brunette asked as he crossed his arms over his chest all the while popping gum in his mouth.

"No. I don't even know who you are," Ash said as he felt Pikachu get tense on his shoulder.

"Well when you came in it seemed like it, boy-o," the brunette said as he popped his gum again, "You know with you rolling your eyes. So I'll ask again, you got a problem with us?"

"No," Ash said as he met the dark eyes with his own, "Now, if you don't mind I would like to go to my room for the night."

"Oh I do mind," the brunette said as the twins moved to either side of Ash, "I do think you got a problem with us and there's one of two ways we can deal with this. I can either beat the shit out of ya or my pokémon can beat the shit out of yours. How would you like your beating?"

Ash bit his lip softly and before he could answer he heard Nurse Joy behind him speak up, "There won't be any beating up anyone boys," she said sternly, "if you don't want the cops being called on you that is. However, if you must settle this with a pokémon battle there's a field out back. I won't have any fighting in the Center."

Ash sighed softly at this before telling the jerk that he'll battle with him if it'll get him out of his face. The twins chuckled as they escorted Ash to the back field with the brunette leading them. "So," Ash said as he went to stand on one side of the field, "What are the requirements for this battle?"

"One against three. No subs. No potions. No revives or other items," the brunette said as he smirked thinking that they had this battle in the bag, "Oh and the name is Dylan Graham. These two are Jacob and Joshua Byrne."

"Ash Ketchum," Ash simply said before letting Pikachu jump onto the field knowing that his other two pokémon wouldn't have the stamina or strength to fight three on one. He hoped his Pikachu was ready.

"Growlithe/Machop/Geodude!"

Ash took note of the pokémon in front of him. The first one was a black striped orange puppy pokémon with tan colored fur on its head, chest, and tail that he knew if trained right could be really hard to beat once it was evolved. The other two he didn't know a lot about. The second pokémon was short and stood on two legs like a human would and had a strong muscled build to its body while the third pokémon looked like an ordinary rock he could walk past, but it had arms.

"Pikachu, let's get the Growlithe out first," he said softly at almost a whisper so the trio couldn't hear him, "Iron Attack." Pikachu twitched his ears letting Ash know he heard before be burst into action letting his tail glow a silver gleam as he dashed toward the unsuspecting pup. Pikachu smacked his iron hard tail into Growlithe's side making the pup yelp as it flew back knocked out for the count from the attack and impact to the ground before he had to dodge as the Machop kicked out at him.

Pikachu dashed back to his trainer as he kept an eye on the other two pokémon. "Dodge!" Ash yelled as he saw the Geodude use Rock Throw to send sharp rocks Pikachus' way, "Use Electro Ball on the Machop then Iron tail on the Geodude."

Ash watched as Pikachu charged a ball of electricity on his tail before sending it Machops' way just barely hitting it as it dodged before the yellow mouse dashed his way to the Geodude whacking it away with his tail.

"Take Down!"

"Brick Break!"

Ash narrowed his eyes as he saw an opportunity then smirked, "Pikachu hold!" he yelled, "Wait there until I say!" He saw Pikachu give him a confused look before nodding and staying where he was at. Ash's smirked widened as he saw the Machop and Geodude get closer and closer to Pikachu from either side of his pokémon. He also saw the twin smirking watching the same thing happen before the smirks fell when Ash gave Pikachu the command, "Jump!"

Pikachu quickly followed through and jumped high just as Machop and Geodude would have hit him, but instead hit each other making the other pokémon faint from the powered collision. When he landed Pikachu rushed to Ash's side slightly ruffled and dirty, but not injured.

"I would like my winnings now," Ash said as he held out his hand with his 'dex in it knowing that since this was an official issued battle in front of a witness, and seeing as how said witness watched the battle through the window, the three had to give Ash his winnings of one hundred and fifty dollars each.

Ash stood there as the three grumbled and transferred the winnings to Ash's account before hightailing it out of the field after collecting their pokémon. He chuckled softly as he picked up Pikachu and carried him into the Center all the while praising him on the fight. He let a very happy Nurse Joy check Pikachu over before bidding her a goodnight. He walked tiredly up the stairs to the next floor to his room where he released Nidoran on the bed and Horsea into a filled water tank in the room where his water buddy had enough room to swim.

"Pikachu, you need a bath before you can go to sleep," Ash said to the dirty Pikachu with a little smile of his face knowing Pikachu didn't like getting wet. Pikachu protested showing Ash he could get clean by licking his fur, but Ash knew he was too dirty and just licking wouldn't get him clean. "Not this time Buddy. You need a warm bath and soap," he said as he pick Pikachu up to carry, "Nidoran do you want a bath too?" he asked before entering the bathroom and hearing a soft thump and some movement let him know that Nidoran was following him.

Once the poison type pokémon was in the bathroom he closed the door so Pikachu couldn't escape then turned the water on so it could warm up as he searched for shampoo. He hummed softly as Nidoran flopped down on the rug in front of the tub and Pikachu perched himself on the counter. "Mint or Apples," he said as he found two bottles of unused shampoos in the cabinet under the sink. Grabbing both he turned to Nidoran to let him sniff both to pick from and surprisingly the poison type picked mint.

He nodded and plugged the water so the tub could fill before he grabbed a towel and a rag to wash and dry his pokémon. He stopped the water and carefully picked up and placed Nidoran in the water making sure not to prick himself on the poison barbs. He let Nidoran get use to the water before he started washing the pokémon noting that there were a few loose and dry scales ready to shed and after picking those off he saw slightly darker purple scales underneath. Ash smiled when he saw those. It meant that all their training was paying off and that Nidoran was getting close to evolving.

"I need to check how big your horn is getting Nidoran and see of there are any stretched scales around the base as well as check your front teeth," Ash commented, "You look like you're going to evolve soon with all these darker scales coming in." Nidoran nodded excitedly as he saw a few scales float past his head in the water. He let out a few grunts as he tapped foot to foot wanting the bath to hurry so Ash could measure his horn and check his front teeth. Ash chuckled and unplugged the drain so he could rinse Nidoran with fresh water.

After rinsing and drying Nidoran off he grabbed his back pack from where he dropped it by the door for his journal, pen, and a measuring tape. He knelt by his clean Nidoran and opened the journal to the page he needed. This journal was filled with pages about his Nidoran that he wrote for Professor Oak to look over next time he was in Pallet. He picked up the measuring tape and measured the girth from base to tip before measuring length wise of the pokémon's horn before looking to see if there were any stretched scales before checking to see of there were any shrinking on his front teeth. Professor Oak had told him a few years ago that a Nidorans' front teeth, also known as their egg teeth, would shrink a bit before evolution since they would need to get use to smaller front teeth and longer back fangs upon evolution.

"Well Nidoran, your horn has gotten a bit longer, but the thickness hasn't changed any. Your egg teeth haven't started shrinking either," Ash said as he wrote a few things down in the journal, "I'll look at them again in a couple of days to see if anything changes, but I think you're in the very, very early stages of evolution."

Nidoran nodded and let out a soft grunt before trying to look down his snout to see if he can see his own horn. Ash chuckled and left Nidoran to do what he wanted as he rinsed out the tub and got it ready for Pikachu's bath. "Come on Pikachu, you saw how fast it was for Nidoran," Ash said as he picked up a protesting Pikachu, "I'll use the blow dryer afterwards," he tempted Pikachu knowing how much the yellow mouse liked the heated air on his fur.

He felt Pikachu go limp in his arms and he knew he got the yellow mouse to agree with a bath. "Now mint or Apple?" he asked holding out the bottles for Pikachu to sniff not surprised that the electric type picked apple, "Alright let's wash you quickly so we can get to the blow dry."

He saw Pikachu give him pleading eyes to hurry once he was set in waist high water. Chuckling Ash did hurry to bathe Pikachu glad that despite how dirty he was he didn't need to change the water. Once Pikachu was out of the water he shook his fur out causing water droplets to fly through the room. "Chu!" Pikachu exclaimed as he sneezed from a drop of water falling on his nose making Ash chuckle once more.

"Okay I think it's blow dryer time," he said as he set Pikachu on the counter to use the built in blow dryer on its low setting to dry the wet fur. Once dry and fluffed up Pikachu set to the task of taming the fur down as his trainer picked him up only to place him on the bed.

"Nidoran do you want to sleep on the bed?" Ash asked as he gestured to the bed before getting a small nod from the poison type. He smiled and picked up the pokémon to put him on the bed before showering quickly so he could go to bed himself. He smiled as he fell asleep to the soft rumble of his Horsea sleeping in the water and the smell of mint and apple gracing his nose.

* * *

The next morning greeted Ash to the site of a busy town and people singing along the streets as children played not too far from parental vision. Everywhere he turned he saw someone doing something and not a one was just sitting down enjoying the nice breeze. He wasn't much better as he made his way quickly to a good training area Nurse Joy was all to happy to give him directions to. He had decided that morning after he got up that he could give his pokémon some training before they challenged the gym. He wants to make sure Nidoran was sure enough of himself that he could fight and win.

Once he was a bit a ways back in Viridian Forest near a small pond he let out Nidoran and Horsea. "Alright guys! Let's get some training in today and if we're at a good enough point we'll try the Gym tomorrow," Ash said once he got their attention, "Nidoran I want you to try and get started on Horn Attack so pick a tree and start ramming it with your horn as you focus all your strength and energy into it. Horsea I want you to work on Bubble Beam. Use your Bubble attack, but instead of just one bubble at a time try making into a stream of bubbles. Pikachu, I want you to learn Slam the name explains all you have to do to learn it. I got a combo move planed if you can learn that move."

After his pokémon got their training plans they moved away from each other to start working on their moves as Ash moved to sit under a tree to plan out their route after they leave Pewter. He would like to visit Rota since it was close by and he had a year and a half before he could enter the Indigo Plateau Conference and before that he needed the eight badges to even qualify, but as he thought before he had a year and a half before the Conference started.

He sighed before resting his arm on his knee and called Professor Oak to get his opinion.

_Bring…_

_Bring…_

_Ding!_

"Ah Ash! I was beginning to wonder when you were going to call!" Oak said as he smiled through the screen at Ash, "How's it going? I don't seem to know where you are at."

Ash laughed and smiled back, "It's going Professor. I'm in the Viridian Forest. I made it to Pewter last night and slept before entering the forest again to train for the Gym."

"That's good Ash, but I must say Gary has already gotten two badges and is heading for his third," Oak replied as he sat back in his office chair.

"Of course he is. He's always in a rush while I, myself, am not," Ash said as he looked up as he heard a soft bang and saw Pikachu get up from a small crater before going back up a tree to try it again.

"Are you in the middle of training?" Oak asked as he saw Ash look up.

"Yeah! Just seeing what the bang was," he said as he looked back down, "I have Pikachu working on Slam. I want him to learn it to we can work on a combo move."

"I see. Have you caught any other pokémon?"

"Mhm," Ash hummed, "A male Nidoran right after I left Pallet and then I ended up at this really big pond off one of the paths in Viridian Forest and caught a Horsea."

"A Horsea?!" Oak exclaimed as his eyes went wide, "the pond isn't connected to the ocean is it?"

Ash shook his head, "It's too in land for it to connect. Either two Kingdra made a nest there or someone moved Horsea from its natural habitat by the Seafoam Islands. Oh, also in one of the smaller lakes in Viridian Forest a few miles from Pewter is a really aggressive Gyarados. It got angered by a girl fishing and if Pikachu and I weren't there she would have been Gyarados food."

"Hmmm, that is troubling. I'll call someone from the League to take care of it. That, my dear Ash, is really good work for an ORFT," Oak said giving Ash a sly smile making the teen hold in a blush, "Now are these bandages I see in the corner of the screen?"

Ash sighed before explaining what happened in Viridian and how it was handled by himself before the police could even show up. It was him being at the right place and at the wrong time. "Well, all I can do is report it to the League. They've been trying to keep a record of Team Rocket and where they attack," Oak said, "I would say stay away from anything Team Rocket related, but I know you Ash. Just," he took a deep breath as he gave Ash a look, "Stay safe. If not for yourself then for your mother. You know she worries."

"I will. I don't want to go near them again," Ash said softly as he gave the older man a smile before changing the subject and saying, "I do have a few questions about my pokémon and their evolutions." Ash and Oak spent the next few moments speaking about Nidoran and the changes Ash observed before coming to the conclusion that Nidoran was in the very early stages in evolution while Ash hadn't seen any changes in Horsea and Pikachu didn't want to evolve.

"So Professor I can't decide my next move," he said as he looked up to watch his pokémon for a moment.

"What can't you decide," Oak asked before taking a sip of coffee.

"Well since I'm on this side of Kanto and it's so close to my location I want to go visit Rota because of those ruins you told me about," Ash said as he looked back at the screen, "But on the other hand I do only have a year and a half before the next Conference, which I do want to be a part of. I don't expect to win, but I do want to try my hand at it."

"Well, as you did say Ash, you do have a year and a half," Oak said as he put his mug down, "So how about after you journey to Rota I'll have Alakazam teleport you back to Pewter where you can continue on your journey to Celadon for the next badge."

Ash stunned at the offer nodded as he thanked the Professor, "Is there anything I need to know of when I reach Rota? Like is there any regulations or procedures I need to know about to visit the ruins?"

"You'll have to get permission from the ruler of Rota so you'll need to acquire entrance into Cameran Palace to speak with her," he said after a few moments of silence, "I believe her name is Queen Ilene."

"Okay, um doesn't sound too hard," Ash said as he nodded, "All I can do is try."

"That's the spirit," Oak said as he chuckled, "Now, I've taken enough of your time so I'll leave you to your training. Let me know of any further developments."

"I will Professor," Ash promised as he ended the call. He stood up and stretched before going to see his pokémons' progression. Pikachu was doing great in making small creators in the ground from his slams, but it wasn't perfect yet, which he didn't really want Pikachu to perfect in one go seeing as he was in no rush for Pikachu to learn the combo move. Horsea had the idea of trying to use Bubble and Water Gun together which kind of got the same effects as Bubble Beam so it was a great start for Horsea. And Nidoran was almost there in his Horn Attack, but his horn was beginning to bruise so he called off training for the day to get them all looked at by Nurse Joy.

Ash decided to walk around town as his pokémon were getting seen too when he ran across a child crying softly next to a fallen ice cream cone. She had coarse looking auburn hair in pigtails and dark narrow eyes. Her orange tank top was stained with the fallen ice cream as well as her cargo shorts and black tennis shoes. "Hello," he said softly as he crouched down beside her.

She looked over at him while sniffling, "Hello," she said watery as she wiped her cheeks.

"Where's your parents?" Ash asked as he pulled a few tissues out of his bag for her to use to clean up. He had watched her for a few moments, but no one approached her.

"Dunno. Big Brother looks after us," she said softly as she used the napkins to wipe her hands and face off, "Big meanie knocked into Suzie and made Suzie spill her ice cream."

"So your name is Suzie," Ash said softly, "Well, where does your Big Brother work or live? I bet he's looking for you."

"Suzie's Big Brother is the Gym Leader," she said as Ash took the used tissues to throw away in the trash cans nearby.

"Well Miss Suzie," Ash said as he held his hand out, "My name is Ash and why don't you lead me to the Gym so we can find your Big Brother." Suzie giggled softly and nodded as she took Ash's hand into her slightly sticky one. On the way to the Gym Ash asked Suzie why she was out by herself and that it was dangerous to be out with no one to look after her. She told him that he Big Brother wouldn't let her have ice cream before dinner, but she really wanted some so she took some money out of Mr. Binks, her piggy bank, and went to go get some. She told him about how hard it was to choose just one flavor and topping so she had a chocolate vanilla swirl on a cone that was topped with rainbow sprinkles and m&ms.

It was a few moments after her story ended when they reached the Gym. In the front of the gym was a tall man with eight other children of different ages. "Suzie!" one of the girls yelled out causing the others to look over then rush over to Suzie. Ash smiled as he watched them get reunited before the eldest of the bunch walked over to him.

"Thank you for finding her. Where was she," he asked as he kept an eye on the others. It was quite obvious that all of them were related with the same hair and squinty narrow eyes.

"Over by the ice cream shop," Ash replied before adding, "She told told me the whole story about how and why she was there as she led me here. You the Big Brother?"

"Yeah! Brock's the name," Brock said as he held out a hand to introduce himself.

"I'm Ash," he said shaking the hand, "Suzie said you were the Gym Leader."

"Sure am," he said with a smile, "Battle's gotta wait until tomorrow. I got take care of these guys."

Ash chuckled and sent him a little smile, "That's alright. I was gonna say for you to be prepared for a morning battle. Coming here bright and early."

Brock sent him a small chuckle and a smile, "Got places to be?"

"Yeah, I'm going to head on to Rota," Ash said as he walked with Brock and his siblings for a bit until they were almost in front of the Center, "Then to Celadon."

"Well," Brock said as he folded his arms over his chest as he smirked already getting pumped for the morning, "I'll be waiting then. Bright and early."


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> What if Ash was more knowledgeable about Pokémon and the world around him before starting his journey? What if he got an opportunity like no other an decided to take it? Well here's to a different start with our Ash! Slash! Comashipping!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is cross posted to my Fanfiction site under the same name as it is on here. A few things before you begin reading. Ash is older at the start of his journey than in cannon. He is 16 years of age. Ash will be a bottom in his relationships. He will also capture pokemon he had not during the cannon episodes. He will know or be taught how to use Aura since I feel like they really failed in using it to its potential in the episodes. If there are anymore details I'll be sure to address them as they come up.
> 
> Main Pairing: AshxPaul
> 
> Side pairing: AshxGary (One sided on Gary's part)
> 
> Rating: M (to be safe)
> 
> Disclaimer: I do not own pokemon it belongs to Game Freak, Nintendo, Creatures, The Pokemon Company, etc, nor do I write this for profit. This is for entertainment use only.
> 
> Enjoy! And don't forget to leave a review!

Ash was up bright and early like he said he was going to be and at the Gym ready to battle. He prepped his team last night just to make sure they were all set for battling. He had to explain to Horsea that he wouldn't be able to battle on land until he evolved to a Kingdra, and he didn't want to tell his Horsea that he didn't know when that could happen. He wasn't sure how to get his hands on a Dragon Scale. He decided on using Nidoran and Pikachu in this fight as he wanted Nidoran to get more battle experience seeing as the poison type was getting close to evolving.

Now he was standing on the battling field with Brock as his siblings went to sit on the stands wanting to watch them battle. He took a deep breath as he took in the environment around him.

Dirt, rocks, and oh look more dirt.

He sighed as he waited for Forest, the next oldest sibling, to announce when to start. "Alright! This battle is between Pewter Gym Leader, Brock Harrison*, against challenger, Ash Ketchum from Pallet Town. This battle is a two on two. No substitutions, no recovery items, the battle ends when both pokémon on one side is knocked out. Gym Leader sends out first," Forest announced as he stood on the side lines with a blue flag and a red flag in his hands. Brock sent Ash a nod before sending out his first pokémon.

"Let's roll! Geodude!"

Ash hummed as he saw the pokémon he had just seen yesterday. He narrowed his eyes before sending out his Nidoran.

"To the battlefield, Nidoran!"

His poison type let out a growl as it left his pokéball. His poison barbs already out and dripping ready to poison his opponent. Nidoran hunkered down for the moment as he waited for his trainers' call.

"Geodude! Tackle!"

The Geodude let out a grunt as it moved, faster than expected for a rock type, towards Nidoran. Nidoran waited tense until the last moment before dodging the attack so the rock pokémon would end up gong around him. "Double Kick!" Ash called out as he crossed his arms over his chest. Nidoran ran quickly to where the Geodude was picking itself up from the failed Tackle and tried to deliver the Double Kick, but the Geodude was quick to dodge back towards his trainer.

Ash watched as his Nidoran chased the rock like pokémon across the field letting his pokémon use his best judgement on what to do. He hummed softly as his eyes narrowed. He couldn't think of a way to win this battle. He sighed softly to himself as he watched his Nidoran give back as much as he was given.

It wasn't until Geodude started slowing down that Ash knew he had a small window on chance to get the pokémon down once and for all. "Nidoran! Quick Kick the Geodude!" he called out suddenly as the rock like pokémon stuttered to keep its way out of Nidoran Peck. He heard his poison buddy let out a chirp before dashing in quickly in a Quick Attack before channeling that energy into his hind legs to let out two hard kicks causing the Geodude to fly back against the wall. Ash watched patiently as his Nidoran's ears twitched towards his downed opponent.

After a few moments Forrest called out, "Geodude is unable to continue! Nidoran wins!"

Ash let out a soft sigh of relief as his purple pokémon lumbered back to him and fell down at his feet showing his trainer that he too was tuckered out from the fight. Smiling he knelt and rubbed Nidoran behind a large ear. "You did really good Nidoran. That Geodude was a good match wasn't it?" he asked as he moved his pokémon from in front of him to beside him. Pikachu moved from his shoulder to the ground and made a small noise at Nidoran before getting a small grunt back.

Ash chuckled and quickly gave Nidoran a berry before focusing back on the field. "Will both trainers send out their next pokémon?" Forrest called out as he stepped back into his ref box with his arms down at his side.

"Go! Onix!" Ash heard Brock call out before a large rock snake appeared with a bellowing groan. Ash examined the beast before clacking his tongue against the roof of his mouth. Pikachu perked up and gave him an affirmative before running out onto the field.

He heard Brock laugh before he said, "Are you sure you want to send an electric type? You do know that this is a rock type gym?"

He gave Brock a bored look before letting out a soft command to his electric mouse, "Use Quick Attack to dodge attacks but keep nailing the Onix with Iron Tail." Pikachu let out a soft hurring sound before he was gone in a flash and by the time Brock could see the small mouse he was already nailing his Onix in the head with an over powered Iron Tail causing the larger beast the topple over with a groan.

Ash watched as the Onix got back up and whipped his tail back and forth as it tried to hit his Pikachu. He kept silent as he saw Pikachu land a few Iron Tails along the rocky body. He saw Onix trying to use Rock Throw and Rock Tomb a few times before letting out a high pitched whistle. Pikachu backed off towards him and stood in front of him while facing the steadily growing angrier Onix. The larger pokémon thrashed his tail back and forth causing the arena to fill with dust making it harder to see.

"We need to end this quick Pikachu," Ash said as his yellow mouse caught his breath. He knew Pikachu wouldn't have much stamina left after using two consecutive attacks over and over like he was doing. "Confuse him. Get him to follow you and tangle him up. When you get the chance nail him with an Iron Tail on his head," he said softly so Brock couldn't hear him. Pikachu was gone with a flash, but it was much slower this time so Onix could see him as the cloud of dust settled down.

"Onix! Crunch!" Brock yelled once he saw that Pikachu was slowed down. The older male thought that this was his chance to nail the yellow mouse.

Ash watched with anticipation as Pikachu ran circles around the rock snake ducking and weaving around it leading the head up and over and through itself. It was only a few moments later that Brock realized what happened and sighed as he closed his eyes. Ash smirked as Pikachu let out a loud yell and slammed the Onix's head down to the ground with a powerful Iron Tail causing the giant rock snake to pass out.

"Onix is unable to continue!" Forrest announced as he raised a red flag in Ash's direction, "Pikachu is the winner! Challenger Ash Ketchum wins!"

Pikachu ran up to Ash to get pets from his trainer as well as praise from how well he had done which Ash readily gave the small pokémon. He recalled Nidoran and with Pikachu on his shoulder he met Brock in the middle of the field. "Good fight," Brock said as he held his hand out, "It's been a while since someone fought with an electric type and gave my Onix a run around."

Ash chuckled and shook Brock's hand, "It's been my pleasure. I was honestly surprised at how fast your Geodude was. You trained him very well," he said as he reached up and fixed his hat.

"Thanks. Anyway! Here's your badge," Brock said as Forrest approached them with a small open box with a metallic object nestled in the soft bedding. Ash picked it up and examined the silver badge before getting out his case to put it in. "Also!"

Ash looked up unexpecting the sound and saw Brock smiling at him with a pokéball in his hand, "I've been really busy and I haven't got the time to train this pokémon the way it needs. He was sent over to me by a good friend of mine, but as I said I don't have the time he needs. So, I am entrusting him to you."

Ash looked at the older male in shock as the pokéball was place in his hand. "W-Why? I mean thank you, but why just give someone you just met a pokémon?" He asked as his fingers closed around the ball.

"It's simple really," Brock said as he crossed his arms, "I see something in you that I haven't seen in a trainer in a long time. I see a passion in your eyes. A passion that tells me that the pokémon I gave you will flourish and thrive under your teachings. Just come by sometimes and show me how he's doing?"

Ash nodded and gave Brock a determined look. If this man that he just met believes he can do it. Then by Arceus he would. "What kind of pokémon is it?" He asked as he looked down at the red topped ball.

"Ah well that defeats the purpose of surprise when you see it for the first time," Brock said as he let out a small chuckle, "But I will tell you it is a ground and dark type and not from this region."

"Alright," Ash said as he gave him a sharp nod, "I'll just be going then. I want to at least reach Mt. Moon before it gets dark." Brock nodded back to him before he turned and walked out of the building. He clipped the pokéball to his holder on his waist as he walked in the direction of the Center to get Pikachu and Nidoran a look over before heading to the Mart to get supplies. Afterward he headed out of the town towards the looming mountain that was Mt. Moon.

* * *

It wasn't until he was a few hours away from Pewter that Ash stopped for lunch and for the fact that the burning question of what kind of pokémon Brock gave him was burning in his head. He set up his lunch station before moving a little way away from it to release the pokémon. He wasn't sure what kind of temperament it had, but released Nidoran to back up Pikachu in case it wasn't friendly. Ash took a deep breath and released the creature.

The pokémon sat slow to the ground like a crocodile that Ash saw once on tv. It had a long snout and tail that took up most of its body and its scales were a nice light brown color that was broken up with broad black stripes along its back. From where Ash knelt he could see lighter pinkish scales on its belly. He also noticed that the creature had a darker stripe across its eyes almost like binoculars.

Ash wordlessly scanned the pokémon as it opened his jaws and let out a loud hiss. He watched the creature carefully but it didn't move. He waited only a few moment before his Xtransceiver let out a small series of beeps before a males voice sounded out.

_Sandile Entry #551_

_The Desert Croc pokémon._

_It submerges itself in sand to regulate its body temperature. Its jaw can crush the strongest of objects and can usually be seen chewing on hard metals to shave down its teeth. Sandile also have a dark membrane on its eyes to help Sandile see in the harsh desert sun. Female Sandile tend to flock together as they sun bathe while Male Sandile are usually seen fighting other males. The Sandile with the strongest bite becomes the Alpha of the territory. Most Sandile are more active at night time as it it during this time that they hunt small prey that come up to feed._

_This Sandile is male and has the ability Moxie. It's current moves are, Bite, Leer, Sand Tomb, Assurance, and has an egg move Fire Fang._

_Note to trainer: As this Sandile is Male and has the ability Moxie the trainer should take all precautions in handling and training the Sandile._

Ash sighed as he looked over all the information. "Just great. Not only is he male, but he has Moxie," he said as he put the Xtransceiver down. He looked over at the lazy croc like creature as he bit his lip. The Sandile was his now. All he can do is try his best at handling this situation.

"Well Sandile," Ash said gaining the crocs' attention, "I'm your new trainer. I hope to one day be the strongest! Care to join me? I promise to make you the strongest you can be."

The question was answered with a loud hiss as the croc got up from his spot and moved towards Ash. The teen held still before realizing that the pokémon wasn't going to attack him. "Alright! Let's get started by seeing what your moves can do," Ash said as he led the reptilian over to the other side of the area he was in. He didn't want the place he was settling for the time being destroyed.

"Alright! Sandile let's start with Bite," he said as he gestured to a thick low hanging branch. The Sandile hissed softly before moving quicker than Ash expected and the next thing Ash knew the branch was snapped off the tree and Sandile was on top of it with a wide grin on his face. "Wow," Ash murmured as he saw the almost clean cut, "Alright we'll use this branch for your other moves. Next use Assurance."

It only took a few minutes for Ash and Sandile to run through the moves he knew and a short while after that he came up with a game plan. Since the reptilian knew Bite already he wanted to add an element to it like the Fire Fang he already knows, but that only left him with Thunder Fang or Ice Fang. He thought it over and decided on doing Ice Fang since one, he was going to get a fire type sooner or later and he knows Fire Fang already, secondly Ice types were kind of rare in Kanto, and lastly he had Pikachu for electric type moves.

After all that and lunch Ash wanted to head back out since he wanted to at least get to Mt. Moon before it got too dark. He kept his pokémon out since they wanted to walk with him as they made their way onto a dirt path leading up to the mountain. From what he could tell from his map it was a straight shot to the mountain on this path, but there was a few paths branching off of it that led to dead ends and forests. He contemplated exploring one of the paths, but decided against it when he saw the time and how low the sun was getting.

The sun was just leaving the sky when he stopped at the area he wanted to stay the night at. There was a small pond in the area as well as enough coverage from trees and bushes to cover the area from the path so he didn't have to worry about many people seeing him as he slept. After a quick dinner he brought back out Nidorans' file to look over the poison type.

He hummed as he looked that slightly larger Nidoran over and helped him by plucking a few stuck scales revealing darker scales. He measured the egg teeth and his horn before coming to a conclusion, "Well Nidoran, if you don't evolve before coming out of Mt Moon then I'll eat my left shoe. The extra training we did on the road to here has paid off. Your egg teeth has shrunk drastically since yesterday and I can see a few stretched scales around your horn. If you haven't evolved after Mt Moon then it will definitely be on the trip to Rota," he said as the dark eyes peered up at him in hopes that the results were positive.

Nidorans' ears perked up as he let out a cooing noise and stomped his feet a few times. Sandile hissed as he swiped out with his tail annoyed with the ruckus Nidoran was causing. "Hey none of that Sandile," Ash said as he frowned at the reptilian it was as if he were a bit grumpy at his teammates impending evolution, "You would be acting the same way if you were close to evolving." He turned from Sandile once he was calmed down and peered at the pond in the dying light. He could see small air bubbles coming up from the middle of the water and assumed that was where Horsea was sleeping.

He sighed softly and poked at the fire a bit before settling down on his sleeping bag. Nidoran and Pikachu were already curled up together by the fire and Sandile was still up peering around the campsite in the darkness. "Sandile. Come here," Ash said softly as he patted the sleeping bag beside him. He waited only a few moments as the reptile pokémon drug itself across the area. Ash smiled down at him before pulling out his Xtransceiver. He scrolled down to Sandiles' profile and its evolutions and showed the croc. "One day you'll be able to evolve. We just got to get you there bud. We met each other just a few hours ago. Nidoran has been working on this pretty hard over the last week and when I met him he was already pretty close himself to evolving," Ash said softly as he scrolled through the information on evolution for the croc, "I think you aren't that far from evolving, but there are a few things I want to work with you on before your evolution."

He saw that Sandile was enraptured with what he was saying, "I want to get your jaw a bit stronger as well as your legs, stamina, and agility. We will also need to work on your ability to make sure you won't loose yourself and tear into everything, friend or foe. It'll make your evolution much easier to manage after doing these few things since you won't be on four feet any longer. After you evolve we'll need to work on upper body strength as well as you getting use to moving with two legs not four. All I am asking is for your patience and trust. We'll get started right away. We will get you there, but it'll take some blood, sweat, and tears before you can evolve. Can you do this with me? Can you trust me enough to get you there?"

Ash waited in silence for a few moments before he got a small nod and hiss from Sandile. "Thank you," he said as he placed his hand on Sandiles' head and rubbed at the top between his eyes. He made sure to avoid the membrane since he didn't want to accidentally mess it up and injure his pokémon.

They stayed there in silence until the fire was burned down to embers. It was only then that Ash felt it was safe enough to sleep since he didn't have to worry about burning the forest around him down. He curled down into his sleeping bag to make himself comfortable, and just as he was about to fall asleep he felt Sandile work himself under Ash's arm. It wasn't too long after Sandile relaxed that Ash fell asleep.


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> What if Ash was more knowledgeable about Pokémon and the world around him before starting his journey? What if he got an opportunity like no other an decided to take it? Well here's to a different start with our Ash! Slash! Comashipping!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is cross posted to my Fanfiction site under the same name as it is on here. A few things before you begin reading. Ash is older at the start of his journey than in cannon. He is 16 years of age. Ash will be a bottom in his relationships. He will also capture pokemon he had not during the cannon episodes. He will know or be taught how to use Aura since I feel like they really failed in using it to its potential in the episodes. If there are anymore details I'll be sure to address them as they come up.
> 
> Main Pairing: AshxPaul
> 
> Side pairing: AshxGary (One sided on Gary's part)
> 
> Rating: M (to be safe)
> 
> Disclaimer: I do not own pokemon it belongs to Game Freak, Nintendo, Creatures, The Pokemon Company, etc, nor do I write this for profit. This is for entertainment use only.
> 
> Enjoy! And don't forget to leave a review!

Ash huffed as he tried getting through the tunnels of Mount Moon, but he was met with little luck. Some tunnels were straight forward, some were blocked by fallen rocks, while others led to several different paths that were either dead ends or wound itself to a spot he had already been at. During his time in the tunnels he couldn't help but get the sense that something was wrong.

There were no pokémon.

He hadn't encountered any during his time going through the tunnels. No Geodude. No Paras. No Zubat. It was a bit eerie to him. As far as he knew the mountain should have been bustling with pokémon. After taking a few deep breaths he continued his way through the tunnels with Sandile at his feet and Pikachu on his shoulder. He only had those two out since Nidoran was tired from early morning training. It wasn't until he hit the three hour mark into his journey through the tunnels that he heard the first sounds of life with in the dark depths.

"Hey, this way! Executive Petrel wants us to make sure there aren't any more trainers around here."

Ash froze at the sound of the females voice and the sound of footsteps getting closer to his location. He felt Sandile press up against his leg just as Pikachu's fur began to stand up in a threatening manner. He reached up and gave Pikachu a small scratch behind his ear before crouching down to make himself as small as possible. He was lucky that there was a rock tall enough to hide himself behind and he silently returned his Sandile and hoped it wasn't a mistake that he did that. A moment later he held his breath as he hunkered down trying to make himself as small as possible until the person, well people from the sound of it, passed by him.

Shakily he pulled set up his Xtransceiver and started to video tape the path in front of him just as the people started walking past his hiding spot. The woman that spoke had bright pink hair under a dark hair and the two males following her had brown under their hats. They wore similar outfits of dark pants/skirt with boots that either reached their knees or over their ankle and their shirts were long sleeves with black gloves reaching their elbows. Printed on their shirts was a large red R.

Thankfully Ash wasn't spotted in his hiding spot and once the trio were past him he carefully made his way down the path where the trio had come from. If they were looking for more trainers they may have already taken the others. They may be the ones behind the silence in the cave. Ash carefully and silently made his way down the path, still taping on his pokédex, until he was greeted with bright lights and the sounds of pokémon crying out.

Slowly entering the opening to the wide cavern in the cave he was greeted to pokémon and humans trapped in cages and a large tent towards the back of the cavern. He spotted several different native pokémon in the cages as well as others that Ash assumed were the trainers pokémon, but they were knocked out or asleep since none of them moved or made a sound. In three of the cages were trainers that Ash didn't recognize. Two female and one male. One of the females were red headed with sea foam green eyes, small in stature and dressed in shorts and a tank top, and the other female was blond with blue eyes taller than the other female and wearing dark pants and a white top. The male was tall and muscular wearing a sleeveless black top and what looked like sweat pants. What caught Ash's eyes was the fact his hair was purple and his eyes were dark in color.

The dark haired teen slowly scanned his watch across the scene before letting his arm fall with it still recording it in case something happened. Not seeing anyone in the uniform like the trio earlier Ash slowly moved further into the cavern towards the trio of trainers to see if he couldn't get them free. Ash wordlessly brought his finger up to his lips in a hushing gesture as the red head spotted him and he saw her nod slightly before she pointed at the door of the cell. Looking over Ash smirked as he saw an electronic lock on the cage.

Casting one more glance around to make sure no one was around he held Pikachu, who had thankfully stayed silent during his sneaking around, up to the electronic lock, "Pikachu, shock it," he whispered softly. Pikachu nodded and moved to place his cheek against the cold lock before surging electricity as silently as he could making it short circuit and open the door. Ash and Pikachu did this three more times until all the trainers were let out. "This way," Ash said as he saw another tunnel leading out of the cavern a different way he had come in.

Silently the four of them made their way to the tunnel and went down in it to get away from anyone that could see them. "I'm Ash. What's going on?" Ash asked once they stopped. He kept his voice to a whisper not knowing how far his voice would carry in the tunnels.

"The name's Misty," the red head said as she looked at him, "I was exploring the waters here in the cavern when I was ambushed by these people. They call themselves Team Rocket and they stole my pokémon. I need to get them back!"

"Angelique," the blond said as she introduced herself next, "I was looking for my way out when I was ambushed. They took my pokémon too."

The purple haired teen glowered at the three of them, "Paul. Same," he said short and simple as he crossed his arms over his broad chest.

Ash nodded slowly before grabbing a pokéball, "I can get your pokémon back. Do you know what they pull the balls in?"

"Brown bag in the tent, but they released some of them into the cages and knocked them out," Paul said as he looked at the smaller teen curiously.

The dark haired teen nodded once again, "I can get the balls, but you'll have to recall them. When you do it'll probably alert everyone." Ash saw the three of them nod before releasing Sandile. The croc let out a hiss when he saw the other three trainers by his trainer and whipped his tail against the rock wall as he slowly got up on all fours ready to charge at them to get them away from his trainer. "Sandile," Ash said sternly causing the reptile to look at him, "Enough. You got work to do."

Paul watched as the Sandile calm down with a few words and approach the dark haired teen. The purple haired teen had to admit that not even he had to balls to command a Sandile like that knowing how they, and their evolutions, could be in battle.

"Sandile I need you to dig under the tent and look for a brown bag. It'll have pokéballs in it. I need you to bring the bag, but Sandile you need to be careful and silent. Don't get caught," Ash said as he put emphasis on the fact his Sandile needed to be careful, silent, and not to get caught. He saw his Sandile nod before burrowing down into the dirt.

Ash and the trio stayed silent and on alert as they waited on the reptile to return.

* * *

It was effortless for Sandile to dig through the dirt. It was almost like being home again. He was being careful like his trainer wanted him to as he sensed what was above him. He could feel the vibrations of people walking in the space and above him and he determined that he was under the tent. Slowly he began his ascent to the surface and only let his nose and eyes break the surface.

In the room were several tables and a lot of people surrounding the tables. It looked at though they were hammering away at something as bits of dirt landed on the ground after someone chipped away at it. Casting his gaze around he looked for the item he was sent for and found it near the entrance of the tent. Letting out a silent hiss he dipped back into the ground and scurried his way to the entrance of the tent.

Once more surfacing he noticed he was right beside the bag so he carefully lifted his head out of his tunnel and grasped the bag before dragging it into his tunnel like he had many times before with his prey. He covered his entrance up so the people in the tent didn't notice anything was wrong before making his way back to his trainer with his catch in his jaw.

* * *

"So how did you get a Sandile? They aren't native here in Kanto," Misty asked once the silence got to her.

Ash looked over at her as he began to pet Pikachu, who was still on high alert, under his chin. "I got him after defeating Brock in Pewter. Brock gave him to me claiming that he was too busy to train Sandile like he needed to be. Of course I accepted him. I mean I didn't know it was a Sandile since Brock handed me a ball and didn't tell me what was in it, but nonetheless Sandile is part of my family now," Ash explained.

"And what happened to Pikachu if you don't mind me asking?" the red head asked a little hesitantly as she looked at the scarred Pikachu.

Ash bit his lip gently as he looked down at his starter. Pikachu let out a small chittering sound before patting his trainer's hand with his tiny paw. "Pikachu wasn't mine to begin with. He belonged to someone else before Professor Oak found him chewing on his computer wire for nutrition. When he did get him, Pikachu was in a bad shape, like really bad shape. He was abandoned by his trainer after getting attacked so badly. When Professor Oak found him Pikachu was almost dead from starvation and an infection so bad Professor Oak had to use Ditto Cells to heal him. I'm glad though that Pikachu was strong enough to pull through," Ash said as he held Pikachu close causing the mouse to let out a squeak, "I couldn't have asked for a better friend and starter than him."

Before anyone else had a chance to speak a brown bag was thrown out of the hole before Sandile emerged. When the bag landed the opening unraveled revealing pokéballs which some were shrunken while a few of them were not. Ash quickly scanned the balls with his Xtransceiver to determine what pokéball had what in it and who it was registered to. Soon enough the three trainers had their pokéballs back along with a couple of their pokémon.

"Good job," Ash said softly to Sandile as he gave the croc a few scratches under his jaw causing the reptile to let out a lazy slow hiss. He stood back up and looked at the others as they put their balls on their belts and bags. "Ready to get the rest of your pokémon? It'll most likely result in chaos," Ash asked as he tilted his head slightly to get his bangs out of his eyes.

"Yeah," Misty said as she nodded sharply. She was more than ready to get her pokémon back.

"Ready."

"Let's go."

Ash took a deep breath and led the way back to the cavern so the others could retrieve their pokémon. He kept his eyes on the tent as one by one the others recalled their buddies and thankfully it was quieter than Ash expected. He noticed Misty and Angelique coming his way and gave them nods as they passed him, but he wanted to stay for Paul.

"You guys get out of here. I'll wait for Paul," Ash whispered before they could completely pass him, "When you get out go straight to the police. We'll be fine so don't worry about us."

"Are you sure?" Angelique asked as she stared into his eyes. Her own blue ones conveyed worry for them. Ash gave her a smile and a nod before turning back to see if he could find Paul.

"Go," he said softly and a moment later he heard two sets of footsteps leaving the area. Letting out a shaky breath Ash moved forward to weave between the cages to find the missing purple haired teen.

Ash quickly ducked down when the trio of goons he saw earlier passed by him quickly and he watched as they went into the tent. "Paul?" he called out in a loud whisper, "We really need to get out of here!"

"Okay, let's go. I just found my Grotle," Paul said as he made his way over to where Ash was. Just before the purple haired teen got to his side he was pushed away and pinned down.

"Ooof," he grunted as he turned his head to see what was on him, but all he saw was a tall male in white and black staring down at him. His purple hair was shaped in a short mohawk along with his goatee. His piercing black eyes glared down at him with hints of insanity as his lips curled into a cruel smile.

"Well, well, well," the man said with a tinge of a growl to his words, "Look at what the Meowth brought in."

Ash tried to take a deep breath and looked to his right to find Paul in the same position he was in. "What do you want?" Ash asked as the pressure on his body got heavier.

"Hmm," the man hummed, "Well, I was told by my boss to get rid of anyone trying to sabotage this operation. So that's what I'll do." The man whistled and jutted his head to the side before turning around to walk away as the grunts rushed the two of them as the pokémon pinning them down was called off.

The grunts hoisted them up and marched them down into the tunnels away from the workers. Ash assumed it was because the guy from before didn't want whatever that was about to happen to them to be heard by others. Ash kept struggling to get out of their hold and ended up on the ground as one of the grunts kicked the back of his knee then kicked him down to the ground.

Ash let out a cry as his arm was wrenched back with a hard pop after a grunt jerked him off the ground. His belly churned slightly from the pain, but he was quickly brought to reality when he heard a very soft clicking sound. Looking up Ash's eyes widened as he saw a gun pointed at his head.

Gasping for breath Ash struggled in the hold of the grunts trying to get away from the gun not even caring that his arm was most likely dislocated and that he was already in pain. His head wrenched to the side as one of the grunts holding him slapped him hard enough to see stars making him stop his struggling as he tried to gather his bearings again. Looking back up he blearily looked at the gun hoping that at least Paul would get out of this.

He closed his eyes as he heard the click of the safety turning off. A few moments passed before he heard the loud cracking sound of the gun sounding off and a sharp pain to his side before one of the grunts holding him let go with a loud yelp.

Opening his eyes he looked down to where the pain radiated on his body and saw that part of his shirt was short at his side where the bullet from the gun grazed his side. Casting a glance behind him he saw one of the grunts that was holding him grabbing at his leg where the bullet hit him. His heart pounded as he turned and saw that Paul had escaped from where he was being held and tackled the grunt with the gun.

Quickly releasing his pokémon he got them to help Paul in securing the grunts that held them down and grabbed the gun that they grunt held. The gun shook in his hand as he slowly made his way to where Paul was. "Let's get out of here before the others come back," Ash said as he took deep breaths to keep himself from getting sick, "The girls must have already got into contact with the police. They'll be here soon."

He saw Paul nod before they returned their pokémon except for two to keep a look out as Paul got on one side of Ash to help him walk. Ash tried very hard to keep his whimpers of pain from escaping, but it was very hard to especially when he accidentally stumbled over a rock.

"We're almost there," Paul said as he saw Ash get paler after his latest stumble. In his opinion the smaller teen didn't look so good.

"Okay," Ash whispered as he heard Pikachu let out a small chitter and spark from his cheeks as they got closer to the entrance. Paul's Sneasel let out a deep growl for such a little cat as it let it's claws out. It took a few moments, but Ash was able to hear the sounds of footsteps coming from in front of them.

"That must be the girls," Paul said before hushing his Sneasel and hoisting Ash up higher so the darker haired teen wasn't sagging.

"Maybe," Ash said softly as he clicked his tongue softly to get Pikachu to chill. Ash and Paul kept going but were very cautious since they were still a bit close to the people that hurt them. It took them a few minutes, but they managed to determine that the steps they heard were indeed the girls and it seems like the did bring along cops.

After a few hushed explanations and Ash sending what his watch was able to record he, along with the girls and Paul were escorted outside of the mountain and was sent to Cerulean City since it was the nearest city with a hospital suited for humans. Along the way Ash tried not to doze off, but his eyes betrayed him since the last thing he remembered was his eyes closing and him falling asleep against something hard, but warm.

When Ash woke up next it was to the sound of soft beeping and soft sounds of pages in a book being flipped through. He could feel something small and warm between his arm and his hip as well as two other small masses on his legs. Opening his eyes he was greeted to brightness that made him groan, but instead of closing his eyes he merely blinked and looked around. Beside him was Pikachu laying between his arm and hip while Nidoran and Sandile were laying on his legs. Beside his bed was a large tank that held his Horsea and in the chair by his bed was a familiar purple haired teen.

"Paul?" he whispered softly confused as to why he was there.

Pikachu perked up when he heard Ash speak and began to let out a series of squeaks and growls as if he were berating the teen for the stunts he pulled. The squeaking and growling woke up the others in the room causing Sandile and Nidoran to join in while Horsea looked at them confused and for Paul to look at them in amusement.

"I guess he told you," Paul said once the yellow mouse was done. He put away the book he was reading through into his bag before giving the teen on the bed his full attention.

Ash chuckled and nodded before speaking, "I suppose. So Paul, not that I'm not happy you are here, but for the fact we just met each other and have no connection to one another, what are you still here for?"

Ash studied the taller teen for the few silent moments that passed between them. Paul was muscular, as he had taken his jacket off Ash was able to see more of him, and had his arms crossed making his biceps bulge a bit. His face was stoic while his eyes did betray some emotion.

"Well you did just save us and our pokémon. The girls had already left the city, but they did leave something for you and your pokémon," Paul said as he gestured to the side table, "I owe you too."

Ash shook his head and looked at him in confusion as he said, "You don't owe me anything, Paul. I just did something that anyone else would have done."

Paul's jaw tightened before relaxing. The bigger teen let out a sigh before admitting, "But someone already tried helping. They got the same thing that happened to you happen to them, but they didn't fight back like you did. They just accepted their fate."

Ash looked at Paul with wide eyes, "Oh," was all that fell from his lips. The room fell into silence as he gave his pokémon scratches to looks of praise for doing a good job. Just as Ash was about to open his mouth and speak to Paul the door to his room opened and a doctor walked in. She was average in height and had brown hair tied up in a braided bun and had forest green eyes.

"Good to see you awake," she said as she placed her clipboard on the bed before turning to Paul, "If you'll give us a moment?"

Paul let out a sigh and nodded before taking his leave, but he did leave his things making Ash assume that he would be right back in. "Now, I am Dr. Nakayami," she said turning back to her patient, "I'm in charge of your care while you are here."

"Nice to meet you," Ash said as he placed his hands on his lap while Pikachu curled back up in a ball but kept his eyes on her. Sandile let out a small hiss while Nidoran grunted in greeting and Horsea blew a few bubbles.

"Now as I am sure you are aware you were shot at by a gun, but that thankfully only grazed you," she said as she pulled her clipboard closer to her, "I had to clean it out and stitch you up with six sutures. Your shoulder was also dislocated and twisted which is now back in place and bandaged, but with a topical potion cream all you should feel is a bit of soreness from that area. I would like you to stay at least for tonight before leaving."

Ash nodded along with the explanation she was giving as his good hand ran through Pikachu's static filled fur. Ash asked question after question for the care of his wounds and was told to rest his arm as well as he could and that he needed to keep his arm in a sling for the next couple of weeks. For his bullet graze he needed to keep it clean and dry and he should keep it bandaged for at least another week. The stitches would dissolve on its own in two weeks time and she told him that he would most likely have a scar.

Dr. Nakayami stayed in the room for a few more minutes after the questions to note down his vitals and told him that if he wanted any food that he could call for one of the nurses. A moment after the doctor left Paul came back in the room and sat back down in the chair he had vacated minutes before.

"So what are you doing when you leave?" Paul asked as he leaned back in his chair.

Ash looked over at him and replied, "I got something to do for Professor Oak in Rota, but after that I'll be going after the rest of the gym badges."

"Rota?"

"A kingdom in the mountains behind Pewter," Ash answered as he pulled up the regional map on his watch, "It's about right here." He pointed at a circle between the large mountains. "It's about a week trip from Pewter," he added before putting his watch down.

He looked over at Paul and saw a contemplative look on his face. After a moment of silence he was surprised about the words that came out of the purple haired teens' mouth.

"How do you feel about a traveling companion?"


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> What if Ash was more knowledgeable about Pokémon and the world around him before starting his journey? What if he got an opportunity like no other an decided to take it? Well here's to a different start with our Ash! Slash! Comashipping!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is cross posted to my Fanfiction site under the same name as it is on here. A few things before you begin reading. Ash is older at the start of his journey than in cannon. He is 16 years of age. Ash will be a bottom in his relationships. He will also capture pokemon he had not during the cannon episodes. He will know or be taught how to use Aura since I feel like they really failed in using it to its potential in the episodes. If there are anymore details I'll be sure to address them as they come up.
> 
> Main Pairing: AshxPaul
> 
> Side pairing: AshxGary (One sided on Gary's part)
> 
> Rating: M (to be safe)
> 
> Disclaimer: I do not own pokemon it belongs to Game Freak, Nintendo, Creatures, The Pokemon Company, etc, nor do I write this for profit. This is for entertainment use only.
> 
> Enjoy! And don't forget to leave a review!
> 
> I do want to thank everyone who has left a review so far!

Ash looked at the purple haired teen in confusion after comprehending the words that came out of his mouth. Traveling companion? Him?

"Um I actually have something to do before I can continue on my journey," Ash said softly as he looked down at his pokémon, his Pikachu was wide awake, but Nidoran and Sandile were both still fast asleep, "Maybe after I'm finished doing what I need to do."

Paul looked at Ash with a raised brow in question, but when he didn't receive an answer as to what the dark haired teen needed to do he just nodded and went to leave the room. Ash just sat there and watched the larger teen reach for the door knob. "Wait!" Ash said before Paul could walk out of the room.

"What?" Paul asked turning back towards Ash.

Ash bit his number and cleared his throat before asking, "Can I at least have your number? You know for when I'm done?" The silence in the room that followed the question was thick enough that it could have been cut with a knife, but instead it was cut by one simple word.

"Okay."

Ash gave Paul a small smile before giving him his Xtransceiver so he could add the number. He thanked the larger teen before he left and held his device in clenched hands. Letting out a deep breath he placed it to the side on a table before slowly getting up. His side thankfully wasn't giving him much pain as he shuffled his way to the bathroom to empty himself.

After he was back on his bed he fell asleep under the comfortable weights of his pokémon.

* * *

The journey back to Pewter was uneventful, but it was something new since he couldn't remember the trip to Cerulean in the first place. He was told before he left the city by his doctor that there was a shortcut between Cerulean and Pewter if he didn't want to go through the mountain again, but he wasn't too fazed by what had happened. He still had nightmares, don't get him wrong, he was still terrified that a loaded gun had been pulled on him.

He had quickly gotten to the mountain and onto the route he needed to get on to get to Rota. He did double check his bag before he left the hospital and to his relief the package was still in his bag and not tampered with. He did call Oak and told him what had happened and the older man told him that he would let the League know and then asked him not to cross paths with the group again. They were dangerous.

He with Oak hadn't told him that. It only made his nightmares worse.

He was lost in thought as he walked with Nidoran and Sandile beside him and Pikachu asleep in his jackets hood so he didn't notice that someone was running his direction. Sandile let out a hiss as the figure got closer.

"Hey!"

Jumping Ash turned around and saw a girl about a few years older than his own age running up to him. He took the time she took to get to him to study her. She had dark brown curly hair and green eyes while she wore worn jeans and a long sleeve pink shirt. Beside her running with her was a tiny bear like pokémon called Teddiursa.

"Yeah?" Ash asked once she was a few feet away.

"Be-Been trying to get your attention for a few minutes," she said slightly panting from her run, "Wanna battle? You're the first person I've seen on the way to Cerulean."

Ash looked at her confused before pulling up his map. Nope. Still on the way to Rota. "I think you're confused," Ash said as he faced her fully, "This is the way to a kingdom called Rota," he pointed where they were on the map before moving it towards Cerulean, "Cerulean is that way. Completely opposite of this direction."

She looked at him shocked before grabbing at his wrist not seeing that it was his bag arm to get a better look at the watch. Ash grunted and hissed as he was jerked causing Sandile to get defensive and Pikachu to get flung about in the hood. The croc swung his tail around hard, but not hard enough to break her leg, just hard enough to leave a large red mark on her leg. "Ack!" she exclaimed before hobbling backwards. She reached down to rub her leg and saw the large red mark.

Her Teddiursa let out a small growl and was blocked from hitting the angry croc by Nidoran whose poison barbs were fully extended and dripping. "Knock it off!" Ash said before placing his arm back in its sling. Sandile moved back to he as pressed against his trainers' leg as Nidoran let his barbs fall back against his scales.

"I am so sorry," the blond said once all the pokémon were calmed down, "I was just so shocked that I was heading in the wrong direction! I didn't notice your arm was in a sling!"

Ash sighed and rubbed his shoulder slightly since that was where the pain was most focused at. "Just pay attention to the person your jerking around next time," he said before looking down at his still agitated pokémon. Both of their eyes were focused on Teddiursa and he didn't like how angry the emotions were in their eyes. "I um don't think a battle would be wise right now," he said looking back up at her.

"Uh yeah," she said pulling Teddiursa into her arms, "I'm Cindy by the way. Thanks, for you know, not letting your pokémon maim us."

Ash nodded slowly still a little creeped out by her sudden appearance, "You're welcome. Anyway, keep going that way and you'll get to Mt. Moon. Take a left and you'll be heading to Cerulean," he explained and intentionally not gave his name to her as he took small steps back to get away from her.

"Thanks!" She piped up then turned and rushed away in the direction Ash pointed out. He waited there for a moment before turning and heading the direction he was before.

There was just something about her that he felt was wrong, and it kind of scared him.

* * *

Settling down for the night he was still unsettled by the appearance of Cindy. He made sure to go off the beaten path to settle and didn't use any kind of light. He instead chose to use a thick branch of a tree to sleep on for the night and had Pikachu on alert as he and the others got rest.

He was sure he was only asleep for a few minutes before he felt Pikachus' tiny paws poking his cheek. Only just remembering that he was on a branch he was still as he opened his eyes. Seeing Pikachu just enough to see that his electric mouse was looking down he turned his own gaze to the woodland floor.

Standing a few feet from the tree he had hidden in was Cindy with her back away from him.

She was still dressed in what she had on earlier, but instead of Teddiursa walking with her was the evolution on the bear, Ursaring. He knew just how vicious those bears could be when someone or something entered its territory. Staying silent he watched Cindy as her and her Ursaring walk through the trees and pulled out his arm slightly from its sling to video tape her.

"Where the hell is that boy!? I took a five minute break and lost a fucking child," she whispered/yelled at her Ursaring who only grunted, "The boss isn't going to be happy. Fuck!"

He kept recording as she moved to sit on a stump and pulled out a phone to, what Ash could only assume she would do, call her boss. The ringing was loud in the silence of the woods before a male voice rang out.

"What?"

"I lost him."

"You WHAT?!"

Ash saw Cindy cringe before saying once again, "I lost the kid."

"You fucking bitch! I need that package he has! You better have found him before he gets to Rota or all is lost and we're ruined!"

"Fuck," Cindy said as her boss hung up leaving the woods once against in silence. Ash watched her get up and motion to her Ursaring before leaving the area Ash was hiding in.

The teen stayed silent as he waited. He could hear Cindys' shuffling fading away with her cursing before he was just left with his own breathing and heartbeat pounding in his ears. Ash stayed quiet before turning the video off and saved the recording. Gathering Pikachu in his arms he let out a loud sigh and softly thanked Pikachu for waking him up and staying quiet.

Ash didn't feel comfortable leaving the safety of his tree now that he knew she was walking around and he was being searched for. For a few moments he thought about what he would do. There was no chance he was falling asleep again. With a small brief thought that fluttered through his head he quietly pulled his ear buds out of his pocket and plugged them into his watch. He turned the brightness down so he wouldn't be spotted in the tree and left one ear bud out of his ear so he could still hear around him.

He quickly dialed the Professors number and hoped that the old man was still awake. He kept his gaze away from the watch and kept them on the forest floor and saw only a few nocturnal hunters searching for prey.

"Ash?"

He jumped slightly from the sudden sound. Turning to look at his watch he saw the drowsy form of the Professor. "Professor," Ash whispered just loud enough for the Professor to hear him, "I need some help. I'm being followed," he said as watched as every ounce of sleepiness vanished from the Professor.

"What's going on?"

Casting another look down and not seeing anything he answered, "Several hours ago on the path to Rota a girl and her Teddiursa approached me. Called herself Cindy. She claimed to be heading to Cerulean which I thought was weird, but I pointed out the right direction she should have been going. After she left the feeling like I was being watched didn't disappear and so when I set up camp for the night I hid myself. It was a good thing too. Pikachu woke me up about forty-five minutes ago and Cindy was back, but she had an Ursaring with her. I started to record her when she claimed she 'lost the fucking child' before sitting on a stump and called someone. Whoever it was wasn't happy. He said he needed the 'package he has' and to 'get him before he gets to Rota or we're all ruined.' She's been gone for about fifteen minutes. I haven't moved."

Ash kept his eyes on either the forest floor under him or Oak who was processing what he told him. They sat in silence and Ash kept an ear out before Oak finally spoke. "I'm sorry Ash," Oak said as he looked at the young teen, "I didn't think that they would actually go after you. I thought I was secretive enough asking you to take it and that they wouldn't catch wind that you had the package. I'll call the Rangers around the area and see if they can't help you get to Rota. Just stay hidden and when you are in Rota I'll explain who is after that package. I'm going to hang up now, but I'll call back when I have someone to help you."

Ash nodded and licked his dry lips as they ended the call. He stuffed the ear buds down his shirt, but left them connected to the watch. It wouldn't do well if his watch rang and someone unfriendly was close. With a deep breath Ash settled down to wait for the phone call.


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> What if Ash was more knowledgeable about Pokémon and the world around him before starting his journey? What if he got an opportunity like no other an decided to take it? Well here's to a different start with our Ash! Slash! Comashipping!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is cross posted to my Fanfiction site under the same name as it is on here. A few things before you begin reading. Ash is older at the start of his journey than in cannon. He is 16 years of age. Ash will be a bottom in his relationships. He will also capture pokemon he had not during the cannon episodes. He will know or be taught how to use Aura since I feel like they really failed in using it to its potential in the episodes. If there are anymore details I'll be sure to address them as they come up.
> 
> Main Pairing: AshxPaul
> 
> Side pairing: AshxGary (One sided on Gary's part)
> 
> Rating: M (to be safe)
> 
> Disclaimer: I do not own pokemon it belongs to Game Freak, Nintendo, Creatures, The Pokemon Company, etc, nor do I write this for profit. This is for entertainment use only.
> 
> Enjoy! And don't forget to leave a review!
> 
> I do want to thank everyone who has left a review so far!

Ash was aroused from his sleep by a vibration against his wrist and a soft paw tapping his cheek. Not really remembering what happened he let out a soft groan and moved his head, but before he could fall back to sleep memories of what happened earlier filtered through the sleepy haze. Jumping wide awake he scrambled to answer his watch and placed an earbud in his ear.

"Professor," Ash murmured softly once he saw the old man on the screen. He glanced over for a moment and saw that it was quite early in the morning and that he only managed to sleep for an hour as he waited for this phone call.

"Everything good so far?" Oak asked as he took in how tired the teen was.

Ash nodded and ran his hand over his face, "Haven't heard anything since then. Pikachu has been on watch."

"I had gotten through to the Rangers near you and they are sending a team of three to get out to Rota safely," Oak said as softly as he could, "There will be two males and one female, their names are Kellyn, Jack, and Solana. I'll send you pictures of them so you know what they look like. They should be there within the next hour."

"Okay," Ash said as he gave the professor a smile, "Thank you."

"No need for thanks my dear boy," Oak said with a small smile of his own, "You shouldn't to go through this at all."

"Its fine," the teen replied shaking his head, "I've not gotten hurt, have I? Just a bit scared." He did take a look at the photo once it was sent through and memorized the people in the photo before closing the messaging app out to give Oak his full attention.

Oak let out a soft sigh, but let it go. He knew just how stubborn the boy could get. Oak stayed on the phone with him for a bit longer asking him how his pokémon were doing. Ash told him his Nidoran was getting extremely close to evolving as the poison type had just lost the last bit of length on his egg tooth making them just as short as his other teeth, and that Sandile is getting more competitive because Nidoran is close to evolving. Pikachu was still addictive to ketchup and gets moody when he can't get any with his meals ever since Ash decided to use ketchup as a treat for when Pikachu did really well during training. Horsea was getting faster in the water and his aim is getting much better with his Water Gun the little water type was just frustrated that he isn't able to fight out of water.

The Professor hummed softly as he listened to the teen and gave him suggestions to help him. He suggested that when Nidoran evolved to work on his endurance seeing as when he get bigger in his last evolution he wouldn't be able to move his heavy body so fast. With Sandile Oak had to admit he didn't know a lot about his evolution line, but he would asked Professor Juniper, the head researcher for the Unova region, what she thought of Sandile.

For Pikachu he suggested on working on his agility and his strength seeing as he was a small pokémon most would assume his main focal point of attack would be quick small hits. No one suspect a small pokémon like Pikachu to hit hard.

"I do seem to remember that I have a few shed scales from my Dragonite," Oak said a few moment after they fell into comfortable silence. Ash perked up and looked at the older man with wide eyes. "I could part with one," Oak said sending Ash a sly smile, "but I won't just hand it over. You need to prove it to me that you and Horsea deserve it."

"We will!" Ash said as a look of determination filled his eyes. Pikachu took that time to sit up from where he had laid down in Ashs' lap and looked down. It took a few moments before the sounds of footsteps reached Ashs' ears and when he looked down he saw three people standing under his tree looking around.

One of the males with light blond hair wore dark pants and shirt with the jacket and shoes he wore were red. The other two, a dark haired male and blue haired female, wore similar clothes. Beside them were a Mightyena, Arcanine, and a Pidgey that landed on the females' shoulder. "The Rangers are here," Ash said to professor Oak as he looked back at the older man on his watch, "I'll make sure to message you when we reach Rota."

Oak nodded and took a deep breath, "I'll be eagerly waiting for that message," he said as relief filled him a small bit, "Be safe. Be careful."

"I will," Ash replied before ending the call. Taking a deep breath he looked down once more before calling out, "Hello!"

Ash kept himself from jumping as six sets of eyes looked up at him. He waved down at the trio and their pokémon as one of the humans in the group laughed and scratched the back of his head. "Mr. Ketchum?" the female called up and smiled when she got a nod in response, "Need help down?"

"No thanks!" he called down before he began his descent making sure to be quick, but careful. His shoulder was really starting to start up in pain as he reached the last bit of the tree. While climbing the tree was beneficial last night his arm and side really regretted it once he had to climb down. "Hi," he said once again once he was on the forest floor.

"Hi!" the dark haired male Ranger that laughed said as he waved, "I'm Kellyn."

"Solana," the female Ranger said.

"Jack," the blond said as he put a hand on Mightyena, "Oak called and asked us to escort you to the opening gate to Rota. It's a bit far from here so we should probably get a move on."

Ash nodded as Pikachu moved from his good shoulder to his hood and nestled down for a nap seeing as his trainer had others to look out for him. The group began to make their way through the woods to get back on the path that would take them to Rota. Ash was a bit shocked to see that the Rangers had a Jeep that they would drive to the gates cutting the usual week long trip to a long car ride instead.

Jack took the wheel as Solana sat in the passenger seat and Kellyn got in the back with him. Just as he was going to ask what they were going to do with their pokémon that were still standing outside of the car they were recalled into their capture styluses.

They got a few minutes down the road before Solana began asking Ash a few questions. "So Mr. Ketchum," she began turning in her seat a bit to look at the teen, "What kind of pokémon do you have with you?"

Ash smiled as he spoke of his pokémon, "I have Pikachu here of course," he said pointing at the sleeping mouse in his lap. He had moved the tired creature to his lap when they got in the car. "I also have a male Nidoran, a Horsea, and a Sandile," Ash said as he ran his hand over static filled fur not caring about the small shocks that ran through his hand.

"A Sandile?!" Kellyn asked as he turned his attention to Ash, "How did you get one of them? They aren't even native to this region!"

Ash chuckled, "I got him as a gift from the Pewter Gym Leader after defeating him. Brock said he didn't have the time to take care of Sandile like he deserves so he gave him to me," he replied.

"What kind of Sandile is it? Male or female?" Jack asked but he kept his eyes on the road.

"Male with Moxie," Ash said slightly confused as to why he was asking.

"Moxie?!" Kellyn exclaimed as he stared at the teen with wide blue eyes, "That's like really dangerous especially in males!" Ash saw Solana nodding in agreement as well as saw Jacks' eyes looking at him in the review mirror.

"Sandile is actually really sweet," Ash explained, "Really competitive and protective of those he sees as family, but sweet. If he doesn't know you he'll take you as a threat, but he mellows out if he sees you're not a threat to me or the rest of his pack."

"I want to see him!" Kellyn stated as he brought down his fist onto his leg.

"Can I release him in here?" Ash asked looked between the three of them. Once he saw that he got an affirmative he put Pikachu in his hood so he could release Sandile on his lap. "I would try and make yourself as far away as you can," Ash said as he grabbed Sandiles' ball from his waist and pointed it down to his lap before pressing the button to release his croc.

Sandile let out a loud hiss once he saw the unknown male in front of him, but didn't charge at him seeing as he was sitting in his trainers' lap. He did swing his tail and bashed it against the car door as he opened his mouth to let the unknown male see how big his fangs were. He would defend his trainer to his last breath if need be.

"Settle down," Ash said as he reached to Sandiles' lower jaw and gave him scratches where he knew the croc liked it best. The croc let out another softer hiss as he settled down in his lap making Ash smile. He looked over at Kellyn as saw his eyes had gone wider.

"How?"

"Told you he was sweet," Ash said as he smiled.

"Usually if someone let their hands near a Sandiles' mouth it would get ripped off," Jack said as he saw Ashs' hand near the sharp teeth, "It has to do with their poor vision. They mostly rely on the vibrations they feel through the ground. They thrive in deserts. They're vision gets better in each evolution as the membrane around their eyes gets thinner since the eyes develop an eyelid that acts like the membrane. It helps them survive out of the deserts and during battles."

Ash looked down at Sandile, now almost boneless in his lap, the membrane around his eyes seemed really dark as the sun beat down on them, "Is it hurting him then? Being out in the sun like this without any sand?" he asked. He felt Sandile move and open in mouth with a loud long hiss.

"Nah," Jack said once the croc was done hissing, "What he did there was release heat that built inside him. Sandile can adapt once they are out of the desert. He's not hurting or anything and I'm sure he would tell you if he was."

The teen nodded as he ran his hand over the ridged scales along his back. Sandile was close to needing to shed a few of his scales. "Do you know when Sandile are close to evolving?" Ash asked curiously since Jack did seem to know about the evolution line.

"Hmm," the blond hummed, "I believe my sister said she noticed her Sandile was close to evolution when she shot up in weight and length. She said Sandile lost a few of the blunt teeth in the back and they grew back bigger and sharper. The scales started shedding like crazy leaving darker scales in place, but they were barely noticeable against the other scales since its evolution was close in color to Sandile. Her Sandile got really aggressive as well. She said buying a few toys with metal rods in them were a blessing."

"Thank you," Ash said as he took out his notebook and made a few notes on Sandiles' pages. So far he hadn't seen anything like what Jack described, but now he knew what to look for.

The trip in the car seemed to take longer than Ash thought it would, but he was thankful that he at least didn't have to trek in the forest with the potential danger of 'Cindy' in it. He was sad nonetheless. He would have really liked to explore the wilderness around Rota. It was the more unexplored bits of land in Kanto seeing as someone would need permission from the Queen of Rota to explore it.

They didn't stop once during the trip having decided to eat in the car when they got hungry and they managed to get to the Kingdom a few hours before sunset. Ash wasn't surprised at that since Jack seemed to never slow the car down bellow seventy. Once the car stopped Ash got out and bade the Ranger his thanks and goodbyes before approaching the closed gates.

"Halt!"

Ash turned and saw two people approaching him. They were dressed in clunky looking armor that look uncomfortable.

One was much shorter than the other. "What brings an outsider to Rota?" the taller person asked. Their voice held a husky female tone to it, but Ash didn't want to assume they were female under the armor.

"I'm Ash Ketchum," he said introducing himself as he pulled his bag down. Professor Oak had given him a letter to get through the gate and a small package before leaving Pallet Town that the older man wanted delivered seeing as he was going to Rota. "Professor Oak from Pallet Town asked me to drop off a package for Queen Ilene and get permission to explore your ruins." he explained as he handed the entry letter to the taller of the two.

"Any means of identification?" he was asked and he handed over his dex with his information pulled up. Once confirmed he was indeed Ash Ketchum he was let into the Kingdom. He was amazed at the look of the Kingdom. It was like he had travel through time.

The streets were cobblestone and houses littered the streets with kids running around playing with women cooking and men sitting and drinking. He noticed the women were all in dresses including the little girls while the boys and men were dressed in pants and shirts. He knew his mother wouldn't be able to stand being in dresses everyday especially on weeding day.

As he was escorted through the Kingdom he saw that most of the people that they walked by were staring at him, but he couldn't put the emotion to words. He was thankful that at least the travel to the castle was a lot shorter than the trip to the Kingdom. He was in need to relieve himself.

The castle itself was made of white stone with red roofing. There were a few towers with windows only at the top and long large staircases that took people higher into the castle. It took only moments for them to be let into the castle and Ash was quickly taken to the throne room were he was told he was going to get an audience with Queen Ilene.

Going in Ash took in the Queen who sat on her throne. She wore a purple dress that flowed to the ground like a waterfall and her blond curly hair fell down her back. Adorned on her head was a crown bejeweled in blue gems that matched her blue eyes. On her lap sat a Mime. Jr. Bowing he waited until he was told to stand straight.

"My knight tells me you bring word from Professor Oak?" Ilene spoke out disrupting the silence that fell when he walked in.

Ash took a deep breath before replying and he only hoped it was polite enough for the Queen, "Yes your Majesty, I have a package that I was directed to give to you and only you."

"Very well," she said as one of her knights approached him, "My knight here will take it and will give it to me."

"Yes your Majesty," Ash said as he slipped off his bag and dug for the item before handing it to the knight. He watched carefully as the knight did indeed give the package to the Queen without tampering it.

The Queen glanced at it for a moment before looking down at Ash, "I do believe there was something else my knight told me," she said as she set the package aside for the moment, "something about you wanting to explore out ruins?"

Ash resisted the temptation to lick his dry lips as he gave the Queen a small nod, "Yes your Highness," he said, "I am an On the Field Researcher and Trainer for Professor Oak. He had spoken of the ruins from when he were here last and he believed that I would very much like to go through them and see them for myself. I would like to ask for you permission for at least a day to explore the ruins."

Silence once again filled the room once Ash was done speaking. He kept his gaze steady on the Queen not once moving them in case it was seen as him being suspicions about wanting to visit the ruins. Tension filled the room as the Queen thought over her decision.

"Very well," Ilene said breaking the silence once more, "but you will be accompanied by two of my knights. I will give you one full day to explore the ruins, but after that you may not enter them again unless given permission once again."

Ash bowed as relief and excitement filled him, "Thank you your Majesty," he said once he straightened his back.

"You will be given a room here with a knight posted outside your room in case you need anything. Knight Handal," she gestured to one of the knights along the wall, "show him to a guest room and tell one of the maids to fetch him dinner. Captain Herris will get him in the morning."

"Yes, my Queen," the knight said as he bowed and approached Ash, "This way."

Ash nodded and followed the knight as he took a relieved breath. "First time in front of royalty?" the knight asked as they walked down the hall.

"Yes. It was really nerve racking," Ash said softly as it was getting late and he didn't know if there were anyone in the rooms they walked by.

"The first time is always the most nerve racking," the knight agreed as they stopped in front of a door that looked like every other door, "This is your room. I'll be out here in case you need anything. In the morning a maid will bring food here for you to eat before the Captain arrives to get you. Do I need to wake you up?"

Ash shook his head as he answered, "I'm a bit of an early riser."

The knight nodded before opening the door, "Someone will be here soon with food for you. Do you need any for any pokémon you carry?"

"No thanks. I have food in my pack for them," Ash said as he entered the room, "Thank you for showing me here."

"The pleasure is mine," the knight said before closing the door leaving Ash in silence once again. Not really taking in the room as he looked for a door, in which there were two, and picking one he was relieved to see that at least they had modern bathrooms. He quickly did his business and got ready for bed. He was drained from last night and he was ready to pass out any moment.

He did release his pokémon except Horsea since there weren't any tanks and he swore he would spend a bit of time in Cerulean for Horsea. He explained to his pokémon where they were at and what was happening before a knock sounded at his door. Quickly eating his food, he had also given his pokémon their food, and giving the tray back to the maid who patiently waited outside the door he flopped down onto the soft bed. He didn't even get under the blanket before he passed out.


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> What if Ash was more knowledgeable about Pokémon and the world around him before starting his journey? What if he got an opportunity like no other an decided to take it? Well here's to a different start with our Ash! Slash! Comashipping!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is cross posted to my Fanfiction site under the same name as it is on here. A few things before you begin reading. Ash is older at the start of his journey than in cannon. He is 16 years of age. Ash will be a bottom in his relationships. He will also capture pokemon he had not during the cannon episodes. He will know or be taught how to use Aura since I feel like they really failed in using it to its potential in the episodes. If there are anymore details I'll be sure to address them as they come up.
> 
> Main Pairing: AshxPaul
> 
> Side pairing: AshxGary (One sided on Gary's part)
> 
> Rating: M (to be safe)
> 
> Disclaimer: I do not own pokemon it belongs to Game Freak, Nintendo, Creatures, The Pokemon Company, etc, nor do I write this for profit. This is for entertainment use only.
> 
> Enjoy! And don't forget to leave a review!
> 
> I do want to thank everyone who has left a review so far!

Ash was already up and ready with his pokémon by the time the Captain of the guard knocked on his door. Opening it he saw a rather stern looking man with two others in what they would deem civilian clothes around here. One man, a red haired blue eyed man, wore a pair of dark cloth like pants and a white shirt while the other man, he had green eyes and black hair, wore light brown cloth pants and a grey shirt. Strapped on each of their hips were belts with pokéballs and swords attached to them.

"Mr. Ketchum," the stern looking man said and stepped aside so Ash could leave his room, "I'm Captain Herris. These two are Knights Arturo and Nicolet they will be accompanying you to the Aura Ruins. Arturo go to the kitchen before you leave and gather some food for you three. Do try to be back by nightfall."

Ash watched as Herris left the three of them standing in the hallway. The red haired man, Arturo, started walking the other way, "This way to the kitchens Mr. Ketchum," he said as Nicolet followed Ash from behind after he began to Arturo.

"Please, just Ash," Ash said as he looked at the paintings on the walls through the hall. There weren't many, but there was enough for him to get distracted. Pikachu, who had jumped on his shoulder before they left the room, chirped softly and nuzzled his cheek as if he had felt the nervousness his trainer felt.

"Then just call us Arturo and Nicolet," Nicolet said moving to walk beside the dark haired teen, "We aren't much older than you are. No need to call us Knight."

Ash nodded as he was led deeper into the castle to where he assumed the kitchen was. The further they went down the less decorated the castle was, but Ash could tell it was still kept in a nicely neat order and well cleaned. The hall that they had turned into only had one opening and there wasn't even a door to it, but Ash could see, hear, and smell the evidence of the kitchen.

He could smell freshly baked bread and spices as the chefs cooked the morning meals for the residents of the castle. His mouth watered as they entered the warm room thanks to the ovens. "We'll have breakfast before we leave to given them time to procure a bad of food," Arturo said as he led Ash to a square table near the corner of the room. It had four chairs to it and Ash decided to pick the chair closest to the wall since he didn't want to have his back to the rest of the room.

"What do you want to eat? Does your Pikachu want anything?" Nicolet asked Ash as the yellow mouse in question jumped off his shoulder and onto the table.

"Um what ever is available is fine," Ash hummed and looked down at Pikachu and saw pleading eyes and he knew that Pikachu didn't want pokéfood, "Eggs and some bacon for him if that's okay. Thank you." Ash sighed softly. His Pikachu was a glutton. He had already fed his pokémon in his room before he was retrieved and escorted to the kitchen.

He saw Nicolet let out a small laugh before the knight turned and asked one of the chefs for food. He spotted Arturo grabbing glasses of what looked to be water for them before heading back to the table. "Did Nicolet already ask you for what you wanted?" Arturo asked as he set the glasses down.

Ash nodded as Arturo sat down to the right of him and leaned back in his chair. "So, Ash what made you want to visit the Aura Ruins?" Arturo asked.

The teen looked over at the red head and licked his lips before speaking, "Do you know Professor Oak?" He continued after getting a nod, "I've been learning from him for a while now and he use to tell me of the ruins but he never told me the name. I guess the old age is getting to him. Anyway, he told me of the carvings on the walls and the history of the ruins and to be honest it intrigued me. I had made myself a goal for when I started my journey to visit the ruins and it so happened that Professor Oak needed something brought to Rota. Have you been to the ruins?"

Arturo shook his head, "No, the Knights use to go there for sparring lessons before Queen decreed the place to be closed off. It's a historical landmark for Rota. The Aura Guardians, when there were Aura Guardians alive, used to use the place as their headquarters, but after the war a thousand years ago it wiped out the Guardians and no one has been able to wield Aura since so the place turned back to nature."

"Aura?" Ash asked as Nicolet joined the table with their food. Pikachu cooed as he dug in not caring if there was ketchup or not.

"You don't know about Aura?" Nicolet asked as Arturo sipped his water before he began eating.

Ash shook his head as he took the bread on his plate and broke tiny pieces off of it for Pikachu.

"It's a spiritual energy," Nicolet said after Ash began eating, "it's the essence of all living beings. People who have the ability were able to use it both mentally and physically. My great Nana swore her grandfather had Aura."

Ash chewed his food before swallowing so he could ask another question, "How do you know if you have the ability?"

Arturo answered this time, "You're born with it. Back in the olden times before and during the war people were brought the the ruins to see if they had Aura. There was a test or something. If you had it you stayed. If you didn't have it you could go home."

Ash nodded and dropped the topic as he dug into his food. They finished quickly and after being given the bag of food and drink they left through the back door of the kitchen. Pikachu had jumped into his backpack to sleep off the food he had consumed. The servants entrance and exit he was told. By the time they left the kitchen the sun had already rose high into the sky, but he was told the ruins weren't that far from the castle.

The walk to the ruins were the calmest Ash had ever experience since there wasn't a hide or hair of pokémon around at all. When Ash asked why there wasn't any pokémon around he was told that it had been that way since the Guardians were wiped out. It was as if the life had been sucked out of the forest around the ruins.

The further they went into the ruins the stronger Ash felt as though he wasn't in control of his body. He could still feel his feet moving as they walked back bits of stone that would have tripped him up. It was when they walked into the entrance way of the ruins that Ash completely lost all physical feelings in his body.

There were broken stones and moss covered entrances leading deeper into the ruins from where they stopped by the center where laid a carving of a pokémon surrounded by carvings of other pokémon and people. Nature really had taken this place back. All Ash could feel at that moment was a deep seeded sadness that tugged his very core the further he walked into the broken ruins. He didn't even notice when Arturo and Nicolet stopped just before the center of the ruins as he had just kept walking letting the tugging feeling guide him.

"Ash?" Arturo called out to the teen

Ash couldn't hear him it was as if his head had been dunked into water with a roaring waterfall clashing against the surface. Arturo and Nicolet shared a look before Arturo walked over to where Ash stopped at the center carving and turned the teen around. "Nicolet!" he called out as he stared into Ashs' eyes. They weren't red tinted amber whiskey eyes that he was born with. They had turned into a bright blue in color that rivaled the sky on a beautiful day.

Ash turned away from the two Knights and stepped on the very center of the carving.

A moment passed.

Then two.

All of a sudden the carving glowed the same blue that Ashs' eyes turned and a deep groaning sound echoed through the ruins before the center of the carving slowly descended into dark depths taking Ash with it. Arturo and Nicolet looked at each other as a stone circle covered the hole where Ash had disappeared.

"Fuck," Nicolet cursed.

"Fuck," Arturo agreed.

* * *

Ash was taken deeper into the ruins further than anyone had been in over a thousand years. Down here the ruins were as good as new if not a bit dusty. Time and nature hadn't taken this place yet. As Ash stepped into a room a blue glow lit the room as if a light had been turned on letting him see into the room perfectly.

As he walked further leaving room after room in search of something Pikachu had decided to peek out of the backpack. Seeing his trainer like this scared him. He wasn't responding to anything, but Pikachu would keep an ear and eye out for any danger that would harm his trainer.

Not noticing the weight on his shoulder Ash turned into a room suddenly making Pikachu clutch at his shirt to keep on his shoulder. Once again the blue glow lit up the room and it showed an office of a sort. A dusty desk, completely clear except for dust, a bookcase filled with books, and a painting of a woman was the only things in the room.

Walking over to the book Ash reached up and pulled a yellowed book down but when he did that a soft click sounded through the silent room. Looking over Pikachu saw the painting of the woman, a brunet with green eyes, open revealing a staircase leaving down. Going down the stairs Ash felt the tugging getting worse.

_Here._

The female voice had Ash stopping at the bottom of the stairs while all of a sudden feeling like he had his body back under control. Shaking his head and wince at the throb it gave back before peering around. The stone room the stairs led to was larger than the office at the top of the stairs.

_Come here._

Looking around once again hearing a female voice he saw a see through woman standing in front of a dirty glass case with a large painting behind it. She was shorter than him by a few inches and wore a dark cloak that hid most of her body. The hood was down on the cloak exposing her face. She had large and kind brown doe like eyes and shoulder cropped brown hair. She gave Ash a smile and reached out to him in a beckoning gesture.

Ash took a deep breath before walking over to her. "Was that you?" he asked referring to the voice he heard. He saw her nod before she turned away from him to look at the dirty glass case.

_My name is Marie Grace Redfern. I was an Aura guardian one thousand and six years ago. I died when I was seventeen during the war._

Ash gulped softly as he looked at her. She was a ghost? It did make sense since he could see through her.

_I was also the last one alive in these halls. The others died before me thanks to the Corrupted._

"Corrupted?" Ash asked. Marie nodded giving him a glance.

_Someone who was once an Aura Guardian. Someone who had vowed to protected everything. Someone who had gone against their Oaths. They are the Corrupted. They perverted the use of Aura to reach their own gains._

Ash shivered as he felt something cold brush by him. Looking around he didn't see anything, but he turned to Marie who had an amused look on her face. "Why am I here? Why did you bring me down here?" he asked as Pikachu leaned closer to him.

_You're the first person who had come here in over a thousand years who had Aura. Now that you are here I may complete my goal and rest._

"Goal?" he asked hesitantly.

Marie nodded and sent him a smile. _I was commanded to stay here until someone with Aura enters the ruins. Without you Aura would fade away only to be told as stories in history books. Aura is needed Ash. Its the balance of life. Without Aura the Corrupted will take over and the world as we know it ends._

_Aura needs you Ash Ketchum._

_Will you accept it as it has accepted you?_

Marie stared into his eyes and Ash felt as if he were being judged by something that wasn't Marie. He took a deep breath and thought over his decision. If he really was the last one to wield Aura could he shoulder the responsibility of keeping the world in check as Marie said. Or would he fail and the world falls into the hands of the Corrupted.

Taking another deep breath Ash cleared his throat and said, "I accept." He saw Marie smile before he was engulfed in blue. Pikachu quickly leaped off his trainer and landed on the floor. He watched as Ash was swallowed up by the blue glow he had seen around the place before it disappeared just as quickly as it appeared. "Woah," Ash mumbled as he let out a slow breath.

 _Congratulations Aura Trainee Ash Ketchum._ Marie said catching Ashs' attention. _Everything you need is over there on the book shelf along with gloves and boots in the chest by it. Collect them then come back. There is one more thing to do before I go to rest._

Ash nodded as he slowly made his way to the book shelf. The books on it were dusty, but in good shape. There were three books in total 'The History of Aura', 'A Complete Guide to Aura', and the last book was larger than the other two 'The Journal of Aura Masters'. He quickly put them in his back making sure to not fold the covers or pages. Walking over to the chest he opened it and retrieved the gloves and boots in it and placed them in his bag as well before heading back to Marie.

_Before I depart Ash in this case behind me lays the only egg my beloved Lucario laid. Will you take it and care for it? That is my only wish._

"A-Are you sure?" Ash asked as his eyes widened. Marie nodded as she gave Ash a small smile.

_Once I leave this place the ruins will collapse. I do not wish for the egg and the youngling inside to die. I do not wish for my Lucarios' line to die. Will you take it? Care for it?_

"Yes," Ash said as he gave her a sharp nod.

_Thank you Ash. Please take the egg. Once you have you will be teleported outside of the ruins where you left your companions. You'll have a few moments to moved before the ruins collapse._

"I understand," Ash replied before moving to the case. Looking over it he saw a hand like print and placed his hand on it making it glow blue. A hiss and a pop sound made his jump slightly before the glass sunk into the stone column the egg rested on. The egg itself was blue in the majority of its coloring with black bands running around it. Picking it up he felt a pulse of what he knew was Aura before it settled and Ash could feel the warmth of life on the egg.

He turned to Marie, who had a soft sad smile on her lips, "I still have a lot of questions, but I think I can find the answers myself," he said as he heard the first bit of cracking of the ruins falling around them, "Goodbye Marie. Rest well."

_Thank you Ash. Good luck._

Before he was teleported out he saw Marie fade away leaving this world once and for all.

Stumbling on a rock after arriving outside he looked up and saw Arturo and Nicolet and yelled, "RUN!" He turned away from the ruins and ran towards the tree line and from the sounds of footfalls behind him Arturo and Nicolet were following him. He didn't stop until he was past the tree line and he turned around just in time to see the beautiful broken ruins fall into itself leaving a sunken hole behind.

Panting he turned to look at Arturo and Nicolet with a sheepish smile on his face. "Y-You have a lot of explaining to do," Arturo said panting as he stared at the sheepish looking teen.


	9. Chapter 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> What if Ash was more knowledgeable about Pokémon and the world around him before starting his journey? What if he got an opportunity like no other an decided to take it? Well here's to a different start with our Ash! Slash! Comashipping!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is cross posted to my Fanfiction site under the same name as it is on here. A few things before you begin reading. Ash is older at the start of his journey than in cannon. He is 16 years of age. Ash will be a bottom in his relationships. He will also capture pokemon he had not during the cannon episodes. He will know or be taught how to use Aura since I feel like they really failed in using it to its potential in the episodes. If there are anymore details I'll be sure to address them as they come up.
> 
> Main Pairing: AshxPaul
> 
> Side pairing: AshxGary (One sided on Gary's part)
> 
> Rating: M (to be safe)
> 
> Disclaimer: I do not own pokemon it belongs to Game Freak, Nintendo, Creatures, The Pokemon Company, etc, nor do I write this for profit. This is for entertainment use only.
> 
> Enjoy! And don't forget to leave a review!
> 
> I do want to thank everyone who has left a review so far!
> 
> A/N: THIS IS PART 1 OF A MASSIVE UPDATE! (1/9)

"I let you into my kingdom and into the sacred ruins to only be thanked for the opportunity by you destroying it," Ash stared up at the weirdly calm Queen of Rota as she spoke to him. Her stare was unnerving and her Mime Jr. had a small frown on its face. She continued with the calm tone still in her voice, "What do you have to say for yourself?"

Ash, still clutching the egg he had received from Marie, slowly began explaining what happened after stepping into the ruins. How it was still in really good condition. The rooms he went in and the staircase that he had to go down. He spoke of the underground facility and the ghost of Marie which had some of the Knights in attendance to shudder with the thought of the ghost. He explained what she told him and the task that was left to him and the Corrupted before she finally got the rest she deserved. Ash explained that it was Marie that kept the ruins in the condition they were in and that if she wasn't there the ruins would have collapsed hundreds of years ago.

"I honestly had no idea I had Aura, your Majesty, before I went into the ruins" Ash said sincerely as he gave her a bow, "I am terribly sorry that the ruins were destroyed."

Silence filled the room after Ash spoke and it stayed there for a while as the Queen contemplated the teen before her. It was true that no one had been born with Aura for a long time and if Ash was telling the truth then he would have a harsh life ahead of him. She would try her best to help the teen, really still a child in the eyes of the world.

"Very well," Ilene said as she took a deep breath, "If what you are saying is true then I have no other choice. Ash Ketchum, you are hereby accepted into the Kingdom of Rota as an honorary citizen. You may enter the Kingdom whenever you wish and you will be given a room in the palace for whenever you need it. I give you this opportunity and if you betray the Kingdom you will be forever banished."

Ash gulped softly as he listened to the Queen before giving her a nod and a swift bow, "I thank you, your Majesty," he said before he was dismissed from the throne room. His heart was pounding in his chest as he walked out of the room. He was so sure the Queen would be very angry that their Ruins were destroyed, but he was very surprised at the outcome. In the end he was just thankful that he wasn't imprisoned for the rest of his life.

After leaving the castle and saying goodbye to the Knights that had accompanied him to the ruins he decided he was done with Rota for the moment. Vaguely remembering the way back to the gates to leave he managed to leave the kingdom and made his way back into the wilderness. Pikachu, glad to be back outside of the castle since he didn't like being indoors, was busy chattering in his ear as his static filled fur soaked up the sun.

As he walked he called the professor to let him know what happened in Rota and needless to say the old man was shocked about what happened and was more than interested by the thousand year old egg in his possession. "Well, let me get my Alakazam," Oak said as he leaned back in his chair, "I can take a good look at that egg to make sure its well and healthy before Alakazam takes you to Pewter for the rest of your journey. Your mother would appreciate the visit as well I'm sure."

Ash stopped and let out a sigh. A trip home this soon after leaving. "Alright," Ash said as he nodded and stood still so Oaks' Alakazam could pinpoint his location. He was lucky enough for Alakazam to know him so well that he could find him however far apart they were. It took only a few moments before the Alakazam appeared before him without any sort of noise.

His fur shone a bright yellow and brown showing that the Alakazam took great pride in his appearance. The two spoons he held were twinkling merrily in the sunlight as his whiskers twitched. Moving one spoon to his other hand Alakazam held his hand out to the teen and before Ash could do anything else after grabbing the furry hand they were gone from the forest.

Peering around Ash saw that he was in the basement of the laboratory and he sighed. Oaks' Alakazam liked to play pranks so him being teleported to the basement wasn't anything new. Ash carefully maneuvered around the dusty boxes and piles of books until he was at the staircase that led up into the actual lab.

After making his way up to the lab, and dropping Pikachu off in the electric type feeding room, he went to find the professor. He first looked in the mans' office, then the pastures, then the break room, before finding the man in the nursery where all of the eggs and freshly hatched babies were kept. "Professor," Ash greeted as he walked further into the room.

"Ash!" Oak greeted with a smile, "Alakazam whisked you to the basement again?"

Ash sighed and nodded, "It's fine though. Nothing that hasn't happened before."

Oak let out a laugh before asking Ash to place his egg on the pedestal. Ash knew it was used to check the well being of an egg so without saying anything he carefully placed the egg on the pillowed surface of the pedestal. "The temperature is perfect. The activity within the egg is fantastic. Development is good," Oak muttered as he wrote everything down for Ash, "I would estimate that this egg will hatch within the next two weeks. The baby is fully formed and its heartbeat is well within the normal range for an egg that's close to hatching."

"Really?!" Ash asked excitedly as he gave the professor a wide smile.

"Really," Oak said giving the teen his own smile, "Now that we know your egg is well and good can I look at you other pokémon? To check their progress?"

Ash nodded and gathered the egg as well as the paper Oak had written the vitals on before following the old man out to the pastures. He asked if they could go to an area with a pond so he could release Horsea and was quickly shown to one. Ash put his bag down and laid the egg beside it before moving to the pond with one of his pokéballs. Letting out his Horsea into the pond he made a point to greet him and give him a scratch on his scales that he liked the most. Standing back up he moved a small bit away from the pond and let out Nidoran and Sandile.

Nidoran was quick to greet him while Sandile hissed at Oak. The croc definitely didn't like those close to his trainer if he didn't know them. Oak made no move to get close to them as he observed how Ash quickly calmed the croc down and explained where they were and what they were doing. "Where is Pikachu?" Oak asked now realizing that he had not seen the yellow mouse anywhere since Ash had gotten there.

"I took him to the feeding station inside. When he's done I'm sure he'll make his way out here," Ash said as he ran his hand over Sandiles' warm scales and scratched Nidoran behind a large ear.

Oak nodded, "May I approach?" he asked as he glanced down at the Sandile. The croc was still staring at him and while his body was calm the crocs' eyes were filled with promise of harm if he dared harmed his trainer.

"Yeah," Ash said as he moved to stand, "He'll behave or he won't get any meat tonight." Ash looked down at the croc with a certain look. Sandile swished his tail and let out a hiss before relaxing fully onto the warm ground. Sandile loved the meat treats his trainer gave him occasionally.

"I'll be quick," Oak promised as he started looking over the Nidoran. The purpleish pink poison type made sure to show the old man where his poison spines were and how potent the poison was as the spines secreted a purple goo that dripped onto the ground and ate away at what it touched. He stood still as he unknown man looked him over and measured him like his trainer has done before. He fought the urge to bite down when his teeth were looked over and shook when his sensitive ears were fiddled with. He watched as the old man took samples of his poison before telling him he was done.

Nidoran quickly moved away and sat down near his trainer. Looking down Ash saw that Nidoran was looking up at him and he gave the poison type a smile and another scratch before pulling out a few treats for him for being good during the examination.

"Your Nidoran is coming along very nicely Ash," Oak said as he wrote a few things down on a clipboard he had brought out, "His egg teeth are completely gone and the patches of darker scales are getting bigger. His neck is showing some strain though and I would guess it is because his horn had grown quite large. If he doesn't evolve before you reach Cerulean I will eat my left shoe."

Ash let out a chuckle as he imagined Oak sitting down with a plate of steaming shoe. "That's great news. You hear that Nidoran?" Ash asked as he looked down to the poison type. Nidoran was wiggling in excitement and stomped his feet a few times. "He's excited," Ash said before looking over at Sandile, "Your turn."

The croc hissed as he slowly got up and moved over to them. He didn't like being touched by those he didn't know, but he was quick and didn't hurt his teammate so he guessed it was fine if the old man looked him over. He needed to make sure he was in top condition to protect his trainer.

The old man looked over his scales, even the underside which he hated showing the old man his belly, his claws, his teeth which he was very proud of, and his eyes. He heard his trainer telling the old man the things the Ranger, he believed they were called, said about his kind. He had to dig his claws into the ground as the old man checked his tail and fought the urge to swing his tail into the old man. He was relieved once the old man moved away from him.

"Well," Oak started, "I do not know much of his kind, but I did manage to get a hold of Professor Juniper. She told me she didn't know very much either, but she did know more than I did. She was quite concerned when she heard the Sandile in question was a male with Moxie and told me that they needed to be handled with utmost care."

Ash nodded and knelt to calm Sandile further. "I know that at least, but Sandile here is really mellow. At least to me he is," Ash said as he scratched under Sandiles' jaw.

Oak hummed softly as he observed the teen and the croc before saying, "She did tell me what she knew about their impending evolution. The scales stay the same in color, but they tend to get dryer and flake off closer they get to evolution. Sandile tend to eat more and bulk up in preparation and their tempers skyrocket."

Ash quickly pulled out his notebook and began writing as the Professor spoke. The information was well needed and wanted.

"The most outstanding thing about their evolution is the fact they go from down on all fours to walking on two legs. Juniper told me that it would help if Sandile worked on making his legs stronger before evolution since it would help as he got use to holding up his entire weight on two legs after evolving," Oak added, "That's all she had to tell me though. She hasn't been able to study their kind as much as she would want to."

Ash finished writing what Professor Oak said before putting his notebook back in his bag, "Any information is better than none," he said as he stood up, "I can now keep an eye out for his evolution and be prepared for it more now than a few moments ago. Thank you."

Oak chuckled and nodded, "You're welcome my boy," he said as he moved on to Horsea. The little sea horse was much more calmer than his teammates. He took great joy in the fact that his beautiful scales were getting scratched as the old man looked him over. His tail was checked, his six spine fins were checked, his back fin was looked over as well and his eyes were looked over.

"Your Horsea is in prime health," Oak said as he looked the smallest of Ashs' pokémon over, "There's not really anything I could say about Horsea here though for training I would work on tail power and accuracy before he evolves as well as his agility."

"Got it," Ash replied as he sent Horsea a smile. The small sea horse let out a trill and wiggled back and forth. His health made his trainer happy and with his trainer happy it made him happy.

"Now, how about we gather your Pikachu and you can go greet your mother before Alakazam sends you to Pewter like promised?" Oak suggested as he smiled. The bond between trainer and pokémon never failed to bring a smile to his lips. Ash agreed and returned his pokémon with a promise to release them later once they were back in Pewter.

After gathering Pikachu and getting his check up done, Ash made his way to the diner his mother owned. It was a small building, but it was perfect for the size of Pallet. Approaching the small log building he was greeted to the scents of freshly baked bread and pumpkin soup as well as pastries his mother makes. Going in he saw his mother laying out samples on the counter.

Once she saw him her face lit up in happiness and soon enough he was engulfed in a hug.

Laughing he pulled away to breath and was ushered to a seat and before he knew it food was being laid out on the table for him to eat. Pikachu was given a special plate that had very good nutritional pokéfood on it which the mouse was happy to eat. At his mothers' prompting he released his other pokémon and they were given food like Pikachus' as well.

His mother joined him as he ate and asked him questions about how he had been since he left. He told her about what happened at Viridian and at Mt. Moon. Understandably she was angry and scared for him, but she calmed down when he told her that he would try and stay as far away as he could to any danger. Though when Ash told her about what happened in Rota she was calm and started to closed her shop for a bit.

She ushered him to their house and told Ash to sit while she grabbed a few things. Curious and a bit shaken by her actions Ash sat down on the sofa and placed his egg on the able. He heard her opened the attic and climb the ladder before shuffling noises could be heard. Pikachu was just as confused as he was.

"Here we are," his mother announced as she walked back into the room. She had dust clinging to her clothes as she carried a small box over to the table and set it down.

"What's this?" Ash asked as he looked at the rather old looking and dust covered box. The tape on it was yellowed and it looked like a soft breeze would cause the box to break.

"This box has been in our family for hundreds of years," Delia said as she sat down beside her son, "It was told that it was given to our family by a many times great grandfather to be kept safe until someone with Aura was born into the family."

Ash looked up at her confused, "Why wasn't I told this?" Ash asked as he glanced back at the box.

"I was told by my mother before she passed to not speak of it until I was on my death bed," Delia explained, "Just as she did. Your Grandmother Rose told me that her father gave her this box and to pass it to me when she passed if none of her children showed having the ability to wield Aura. No one knew when a child would be born with this ability, but we knew when they did show up that this box was to be given to them. Go ahead. Open it."

Ash looked at her for a few moments before nodding and leaned over to peel the old tape off. He held in his coughing but sneezed when the dust filled his airway. Placing the tape on the table he opened the flaps carefully. Inside the box he could see a rather old book laying on something black with a yellowed letter on top of it. Reaching for the letter he carefully opened it and read the contents.

_Dear descendant,_

_As I am writing this letter the sounds of battle rage around me. I write this in hope that my dear Lucinda gets it and follows the directions I have placed. If you are reading this then you were the next born in this family to wield a power called Aura. I know that after writing this I will never get to see another sunrise and I hope that my death will not be in vain. My fellow brethren, my fellow warriors and Masters, are falling in battle and this will be my last stand._

_Onto the contents of this box. It holds vital items you need to begin your training in using Aura including my personal journal to help in your training. If you can get to Rota, hopefully there will be others there that can further your studies. Also in this box there is my cloak and my jewelry. They will help you stay hidden._

_Stay safe and journey on my descendant,_

_Sir Aaron Ketchum_

_Aura Master_

Ash sat back on the couch as he read and re-read the letter before setting it down to grab the book, but no matter what he did he couldn't open it. Slightly frustrated he put it off to the side and pulled out the jewelry the letter mentioned. There were two rings and a necklace. All three looked similar to each other as they all were made with silver and had dark blue stones placed on them. Setting them to the side he grabbed the cloak.

Delia couldn't help but let out a giggle or two as she she saw how large the cloak was compared to her smaller son. He looked like a kid trying on his fathers' clothes. Giving her a small pout for laughing at him he placed the cloak back inside the box. "I can't really take all of this with me," Ash said sitting back down, "I already have a few other books from Rota and they're taking up the majority of my bag space."

"Why don't you leave them here," Delia said as she held her son close, "Take only the beginner book you have and the journal here. When you get done with those you can exchange them for the other books."

"What about the cloak?" he asked.

"Leave it here and I'll make it into something you can actually use," she said containing her laughter. Ash nodded and sighed before gathering the items he was taking. He put the necklace on and the rings only fit on his thumbs. He switched the books out and carried them to his room where he put them in the chest at the end of his bed.

Heading back down he saw that his mother had moved to the kitchen and went to follow her. As he sat there and watched his mother make some food to go for him he pondered over Paul. He wondered what he was doing at the moment. Looking up he saw his mother packing the few things, sandwiches and chips she made into a bag before walking over to the pantry.

"Mom?" Ash asked hesitantly and waited until he had her attention, "H-How do you feel about homosexuality?" He licked his lips and turned his eyes away from her not wanting to see the look of disgust on her face. He could feel his heart pounding in his chest and he was concerned that it would leap out of his chest at any moment. He knew that not a lot of people liked homosexual people and he knew that if his mother didn't accept him than his heart would truly be broken.

"Ash look at me," he heard his mother say. He cleared his throat and slowly he looked back up at her and only saw love in her eyes, "Ash, are you gay?" she asked him from the other side of the island.

Ash opened his mouth before closing it. The words didn't want to leave him, but his stomach certainly threatened to come out. Swallowing around the acidic bile that threaten to expose itself he slowly nodded. "Y-Yeah," he managed to choke out and before he knew it he was being engulfed in the tightest hug he had ever gotten.

He wrapped his arms around his mother and held onto her tightly as relief swept through him after she told him she loved him. It was like a weight had been lifted off his shoulders and he felt so light after confessing. "Is there a reason you decided to bring this up now?" Delia asked as she continued to hold her son close, "Its' a rather sudden thing to bring up don't you think?"

Ash let out a chuckle and nodded, "There's a guy I'm starting to like," he confessed as he pulled out his Xtransceiver to show his mom a picture of Paul. He had managed to get a picture of Paul when he was in the hospital. Paul was sitting in the guest chair sprawled out and relaxed as he read from a book. The sun had been setting and it had cast its dying rays on him through the window. His face was relaxed from its usual scowling features and it truly showed how young he was.

"He's rather handsome Ash," Delia said as she took in the boy in the picture.

"He is," Ash said as he nodded, "He even asked if he could join me in my journey, but I was going to Rota at the time and he couldn't enter the Kingdom without a pass."

"Well," Delia said after a moment of silence, "Are you going to take him up on the offer for him to join you?"

Ash looked at her then looking down at the picture. His heart fluttered as he took in the features before he replied, "Maybe I will."


	10. Chapter 10

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> What if Ash was more knowledgeable about Pokémon and the world around him before starting his journey? What if he got an opportunity like no other an decided to take it? Well here's to a different start with our Ash! Slash! Comashipping!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is cross posted to my Fanfiction site under the same name as it is on here. A few things before you begin reading. Ash is older at the start of his journey than in cannon. He is 16 years of age. Ash will be a bottom in his relationships. He will also capture pokemon he had not during the cannon episodes. He will know or be taught how to use Aura since I feel like they really failed in using it to its potential in the episodes. If there are anymore details I'll be sure to address them as they come up.
> 
> Main Pairing: AshxPaul
> 
> Side pairing: AshxGary (One sided on Gary's part)
> 
> Rating: M (to be safe)
> 
> Disclaimer: I do not own pokemon it belongs to Game Freak, Nintendo, Creatures, The Pokemon Company, etc, nor do I write this for profit. This is for entertainment use only.
> 
> Enjoy! And don't forget to leave a review!
> 
> I do want to thank everyone who has left a review so far!
> 
> A/N(1): I've decided to do something I have never seen in a pokémon fanfiction before. Keep reading to find out what it is!
> 
> A/N(2): THIS IS PART 2 OF A MASSIVE UPDATE! (2/9)

Ash left his hometown with a lighter heart, but a weight on his shoulders that barred down onto him. His mind was racing over the whole Aura thing as the walked his way to Cerulean. He had Oaks' Alakazam drop him off in between the two towns instead of in Pewter. Nidoran was walking beside him excited to get some battles in while Pikachu was on his shoulder as always. Sandile didn't want to be out at the moment and his egg was tucked safely in his bag with a monitor band around it.

Ash had found out that the little egg app on his Xtransceiver was actually an egg monitoring system that was tied to a band Professor Oak had given him. The band showed him the warmth of the egg, its heartbeat, the activity within it, and approximately how close it was hatching. Needless to say Ash was quite fascinated with the technology. As he walked he fiddled with the other apps and hesitantly sent Paul a message that he was on the way to Cerulean if he wanted to meet up.

_Ding._

Ash looked over the watch and saw that small banner notification signaling he had a message and tapped on it.

_P- Already in Lavender Town, but I can be in Cerulean in a few days._

_A- No need to back track. I'll meet with you another day then. I promised my Horsea some time in the water since he's been cooped up in his ball. Was thinking of spending a few days there._

_P- I see. If you haven't left when I get to Saffron I'll head up that way then._

_A- Okay. I'll see you then._

_P- See ya._

Ash let out a sigh before shaking his head. He didn't need to get his head wrapped up in boys at the moment. He needed to get his head in the game now.

Keeping on his way he was surprised that he didn't meet many trainers, but he did fight plenty of wild pokémon and he let Nidoran fight them since he was so close to evolving. The poison type was getting antsy seeing as he was so close to evolving but the opponents he was fighting wasn't enough to trigger the evolution.

It wasn't until he was an hour away from the town that they encountered a trainer willing to battle them.

"Nidoran Quick Sting!"

The poison type let out a grunt before using Quick Attack to get in close to his opponent, a Mankey, and managed to hit it while injecting it with poison thanks to Poison Sting. The monkey pokémon let out a screech of rage before it threw its fists at Nidoran. Just barely able to dodge it Nidoran countered with a Peck attack.

"Mankey! Use Karate Chop!" the female trainer, Cheyenne, called out once she saw her Mankey dodge the peck. Letting out another screech the fighting type powered up his fist before bringing it down quickly onto Nidorans' back making the poison type let out a pain filled cry.

Getting up from where he was hit down Nidoran shook of the pain before jumping up and kicking out at the pokémon once he heard his trainer call out the attack. He managed to hit his opponent with one of his back paws but missed with the other as the monkey dodged out of the way. The irritating monkey managed to hit him a few more times before Nidoran started to get really angry.

Out of them all he was the closest to evolving and one of the strongest on the team under Pikachu. He should be doing better than this against a monkey of all things. Nidoran pawed the ground in irritation as the Mankey hit him one after another and with each hit his anger grew and so did the energy he needed to evolve. He managed to throw a Confusion out to the Mankey through the assault, but not shockingly the damn Mankey dodged.

Nidoran let out a fierce snarl before he let energy he had felt build up over the last few weeks burst out of him.

Ash watched as a white glow covered Nidoran from horn tip to tail spike. He felt his lips begin to move into a smile. The small glowing form began to grow and as harsh on the eyes the glowing was Ash kept his eyes on Nidoran as he evolved. It seemed like a long time once the glow began for it to fade away leaving dark spots in his vision, but it was really only seconds since it started for it to finish.

Nidoran, no Nidorino, stood tall as he last bits of evolutionary energy left his body leaving him in his new form. His one foot eight inch height shot up another foot and four inches leaving Nidorino almost three feet in height. His spines on his back grew as well as his ears though they looked more proportional on Nidorino than they did on Nidoran. His horn, while large on Nidoran, fit his size just fine even though it did grow with the evolution.

Nidorino let out a deep growl that caused rocks on the ground to rattle. With a smirk Ash called out an attack and with a bit of decent speed Nidorino hit the Mankey with with his horn causing the monkey to fly back and get knocked out on a tree.

"Good job Nidorino!" Ash called out once he saw that the Mankey wasn't going to get back up. The larger poison type let out a snort and shook his head before he began to examine his new larger body.

"Congrats," Cheyenne said as she gathered her fighting type in her arms. She sent the younger teen a smile and sent him the money required after a trainer battle before making her way back to town to get her starter to the center.

"Thank you!" Ash called out before she disappeared from view, "Nidorino! You did it!" Ash knelt in front of the poison type and gave his ear a scratch as he looked him over. The poison type gave him a purrish growling sound as he got scratches. Once Ash was done looking Nidorino over and recording his evolution in his journal he returned the pokémon since the poison type was tired after all the fighting he had done.

It didn't take him long afterwards to get to Cerulean.

The town was themed on water more than anything like how Pewter was themed around the rock types that naturally nested around the town. As he walked through the cobbled streets in search of the Center he took in the sights and sounds of Wingull calling out to to others. Pikachu, still perched on his shoulder, enjoyed the small breezes that went by ruffling his fur.

Ash followed the signs around the town until he was greeted to the large red and white building turning the corner and entering it he saw a familiar red head. "Hey!" she said as she waved her hand.

"Hey Eliza," Ash greeted as he stepped up to the Centers' counter, but Nurse Joy wasn't there. He assumed that she was treating Elizas' pokémon since she was the only trainer besides him in the building.

"Hey!" She greeted as she leaned on the counter before continuing her greeting, "I'm surprised."

"Surprised about what?" he asked as he crossed his arms over his chest.

Eliza looked him over before replying, "That you're here. I would have guessed that you ran through here and already in Saffron. At least that's where Gary's at."

Ash looked at her with a funny look on his face, "What do you mean about that? Just because he's in Saffron doesn't mean that I have to be there too."

Just as Eliza was about to reply back Nurse Joy came back to the counter and greeted Ash. He asked for a room for the night and asked if she could look over his pokémon seeing as Nidorino evolved during a battle. He didn't want to take a chance for him not to be seen. He had read about the problems other trainers had with their pokémon after they evolved during a fight.

"So what kind of pokémon do you have already?" Eliza asked as she followed him to the waiting area. Pikachu, who didn't need to looked over by Nurse Joy, jumped down onto the couch beside his trainer and eyed the red head sitting across from them.

Ash sent her a small look, but thought nothing of it as he told her, "Pikachu, Nidorino, Sandile, Horsea, and an Egg."

Eliza looked at him with wide eyes, "How did you get an Egg!? Let alone a Sandile! They aren't from Kanto."

The dark haired teen chuckled and told her that he got Sandile in Pewter, not saying who he got it from since he didn't want her to go and nag Brock, or other gym leaders, about getting a pokémon from them. He then said he found the Egg abandoned in the wild.

"I've got Bulbasaur, she's getting so close to evolving, a Spearow, a Weedle, and a Psyduck," she said as she sat back on the couch, "I've been looking for an electric type seeing as the gym here is a Water Gym and I don't want to just rely on Bulbasaur for the Gym."

Ash thought over the pokémon in her arsenal before telling her that her Psyduck, if trained a bit to ignore its headaches, could help her in the Gym. While Spearow and Weedle wouldn't be the best choices to fight in the Gym. "From what I read a Psyducks' headache is from the build up of psychic power so that's why they're always holding their head and not really able to do much. Once they evolve they can channel the psychic power much better," he explained as he ran his hand through Pikachus' static filled fur.

"Really?!"

Ash nodded before replying, "A Psyduck can be trained to think through their headaches but it can take a while to train one to do it. Most people just give their Psyducks a Water Stone before doing any training for it."

"Huh," Eliza said as she thought over what he said, "Thanks. I'll keep that in mind."

"Welcome," Ash said as he heard his name being called. Getting up, after Pikachu jumped onto his shoulder, he walked over to the counter where Nurse Joy was with a tray with Nidorinos' ball on it. Taking the ball when it was offered he placed it on his belt while she said that while Nidorino was a bit bruised he was good and healthy.

He thanked her and said his goodbyes before leaving the center. It was time for Horsea to get some time out of his ball. He walked around town for a bit before crossing a bridge north of town and into the woods. He liked to look for spots to train where others couldn't really see him. He liked the seclusion. It helped him think.

After walking for a while he finally came across the perfect spot for them. It was a beach like with the sand close to the waters edge, but it was surrounded by forestry on one side and wide open to the water on the other side. Setting his things down and letting Pikachu jumped off he walked over to the waters edge. Kicking off his shoes and socks before changing his bottoms into his swim shorts he walked into the water and released his Horsea.

The small blue sea horse looked up at him and let out a trill before spinning around in a circle. "Afternoon Horsea!" Ash greeted as he reached out and ran his fingers over the soft fish like scales, "Want to get started on some training?"

The teen couldn't help but chuckle as the sea horse let out a louder trill. Nodding Ash asked him to show him his moves before moving onto how well his aim was. He threw small rocks into the air and asked for Horsea to hit it with Water Gun then gradually as Horsea got better he started throwing the rocks faster. It took a while for Horsea to get better at hitting the rocks when they got faster.

When Horsea was able to hit seven rocks out of ten in a session Ash called for a break. The tired sea horse ducked down into the water where Ash assumed he went to get some food. As they took their break Ash let out Nidorino and Sandile.

Nidorino, still a bit tired after evolving, settled down next to his trainer and closed his eyes ready to take a nap while Sandile let out a long hiss. Pikachu perked up and let out a chitter in response to whatever Sandile said before letting out a small yawn. Ash however, instead of letting Pikachu take a nap, told the electric mouse to run a few laps as a warm up before getting started on learning Slam once again.

Ash watched as Sandile looked around where they were before letting out a small laugh once the croc saw the sand. Sandile was quick to walk over and bury himself well enough under the warm sand so only his eyes and nose were uncovered. Ash was glad that Sandile was enjoying their time by the water.

As he sat there he looked through his pokédex. He really needed to get an idea about what kind of team he wanted. He decided to stick to his region though he wouldn't mind pokémon from other regions. His first thought was about getting a fire type. There were a few here in Kanto like Growlithe, Vulpix, Magmar, Ponyta, Flareon, and Charmander. Growlithe and Vulpix were the most common to find out of the bunch in the wild while Ponyta were more commonly found in plains or with a Ranch Breeder. Magmar had nasty tempers and could be found in the volcanoes on Cinnabar and Flareon were uncommon due to having to find an Eevee which were rare here in Kanto. Charmander, as far as he knew, could only be found as a regional starter or through a breeder since it was against the law to go hunting for them in the wild. The Charizard parents tend to be very territorial.

Ash let out a soft sigh as he continued to look through the dex. He really wanted a Charmander, but getting one through a breeder could get very expensive and he didn't have the money for it. He also didn't know any breeders.

Leaving alone for now Ash put away his pokédex before looking up some training videos. He still wasn't sure how to train a Horsea to its full potential. He hummed softly as he saw videos of people tying thing to their tails or typing heavy rocks to their necks, but none of that sit comfortably with Ash. It was something entirely different tying a rock to a tail while a pokémon was on land. Even if the pokémon were water types and could breath underwater so many things could go wrong if the rock was too heavy or if a current took the pokémon away.

Sighing softly he kept looking for a while longer before calling the research off. He wasn't getting anywhere just sitting there. Getting up he called for Sandile, who had opened his jaws to get rid of some heat his body had gathered. Slowly the croc got up and made his way over to his trainer and looked up at him.

"Okay Sandile," Ash began as he knelt beside the croc, "I need you to work on a few things before you can evolve. You're jaw strength and leg strength really need to be worked on as well as your stamina and your agility. I know you aren't going to like this, but I'll need to put weights on you while you do laps."

Sandile just let out a longer hiss before giving him a nod. He remembered the talk his trainer gave him after only having him a few hours. He stood still as his trainer tied a flat rock onto his back and made sure it wouldn't fall off before he started his laps without much else said or done. He vowed he would be the next pokémon on the team to evolve.

Ash watched him do his lap with a smile before moving to work with Horsea again. He only had them train for a bit longer before calling it a night as the sun had already set. After gathering his things and recalling his pokémon he gathered a rather tired Pikachu before heading back to the Center. He decided to challenge the Gym the next morning.

After getting to his rooms he let out his pokémon once again and let them choose their sleeping spots before starting his night time routine. He showered, brushed his teeth, and changed his clothes before setting his egg on the bedside table and grabbing his notebook and pen. After writing his pokémons' progresses under each of their sections he set his notebook aside and set an alarm on his watch. He yawned softly as he turned over in the bed and curled up close to his pokémon as he slowly fell asleep.

* * *

Instead of the peaceful way Ash wanted to wake up the next morning he got woken up by the shrill ringing of his watch going off in his ear. Jumping up he blearily looked for his watch before answering the call. "'lo," he mumbled as he rubbed one eye. He ignored his Sandiles' hiss and the murmurings of his other pokémon.

"Sorry my boy," Oaks' voice said through the speakers, "I do seem to need your help once again."

Ash, more awake now, asked, "What is it?"

"Well you know where Bill's Lighthouse and Cottage is at right?"

"Yeah."

"You see, Bill has gotten himself into a predicament and he needs some help. I would have asked someone else, but you were closer," Oak said as he scratched his stubble on his chin, "He's a researcher like myself, but he likes to think more outside the ball so to speak. He managed to get himself in a pickle and now needs help."

Ash held in a sigh that really wanted to escape before nodding and replying, "Yeah. I can get there in an hour or so."

"Thank you Ash! If there is anything I can do for you let me know!"

Before Ash could open his mouth to say goodbye the old man hung up on him. Letting out the sigh he held back he stretched before getting up to get ready to leave. As he walked to the bathroom he turned off the alarm that would have rung in an hour before brushing his teeth. Quickly getting dressed in knee length shorts, a t-shirt, and his socks and shoes he grabbed his bag and recalled everyone. Letting Pikachu jump onto his shoulder he put his bag on and grabbed the key to his room before leaving.

As he walked down the stairs he shoved his hat on his head and greeted the nurse on duty before exiting the Center. He begun his journey back to the spot he trained at yesterday since the Lighthouse was just past that point.

As he had thought earlier the journey to the Lighthouse took about an hour. Going up the steps to the door he knocked on it pretty loudly to make sure that Bill could hear him. After waiting a few moments and not hearing anything on the other side of the door he opened it and stepped in. "Hello!" Ash called out, "My name is Ash Ketchum, Professor Oak sent me!"

As he walked in further he was greeted to a rather large mess and a few smoldered dark patches that Ash knew had fires on them before they were put out. Looking around quicker he tried to spot what set the fires before spotting a rather large Clefairy. It stood there for a moment before waddling closer to him and Ash just stood there. "Um," Ash said crouching down, "Hello there. Wh-Where's the human that lives here?"

Ash watched as the Clefairy gestured a few things before pointing at the computer in front of two large cylindrical tubes. Walking over there he looked at the page open on the computer and saw a few words that seemed to click everything in place. "Bill?!" Ash exclaimed as he turned to the Clefairy to which the human turned pokémon nodded. "Okay," Ash said as he shared a look with Pikachu, "What do you need me to do?"

The Clefairy, who was actually Bill, seemed to get excited as he walked over to one of the large cylinders and stepped into it. He gestured to the large green button beside the door. Walking over to it Ash pushed the button that he noticed could easily be reached from the inside and watched as he doors closed. Stepping back he saw the light show through the small window before it went dim and the door opened revealing Bill in his human form.

The brunet man stepped through the opening in and gave the teen a smile. "Thank you good sir!" Bill said as he took a deep breath, "I've been stuck like that for the last two days!"

Ash looked at the man weirdly before nodding and asking, "How?"

Bill just laughed and waved the question away not really wanting to explain it yet as he said, "Now to properly thank you! Tell me young man is there something you would like? An item or pokémon? Perhaps some money?"

Ash, still stunned and freaked out, decided to push the human turned pokémon to back to human thing out of his head just as Bill suggested a pokémon. "I didn't do this for anything. I was just asked by Professor Oak to help you out," Ash said as he followed Bill to what looked like the main area of the Lighthouse.

"Nonsense!" Bill exclaimed as he walked over to the table and sat down, "In fact! Oak told me about you and about how you are an OFRT. If you accept a pokémon from me to raise I would be more that ecstatic. You see I've gotten this curious little thing recently and I do want to see it grow up, but sadly here it wouldn't get the proper raising it needs. If would accept it and raise it for me?" Bill left the ending of the last sentence unfinished and let the silence in the air fill out the rest in Ashs' mind.

Letting out a sigh he nodded seeing as Bill wouldn't take no for an answer. "Now this pokémon hatched out of an egg not that long ago," Bill began as he led the way up the stairs of the lighthouse, "so really its still a baby. A very special baby. You see this baby was bred from a Charizard and a Garchomp. Now usually you don't see this kind of pairing in the wild, but I was lucky to receive this egg after a breeder got in touch after an accident in her nursery."

Ash listened closely to what Bill was saying, but his head short circuited after hearing about the Charizard. Was he really about to get the pokémon he had wanted before receiving Pikachu? His heart began racing a bit faster as they neared their destination.

"This pokémons' ancestry must have had a shiny within its lineage," Bill continued to explain as they reached a door, "it's rather unique in coloring and not like other shinies I have come across in my time. I have designated its coloration as complete albinism."

As Bill opened the door Ash saw a nursery kind of like what Professor Oak had in his lab. It had chew toys and ropes on the floor as well as padding so babies don't get hurt if they fell. In the center of the room was a small Charmander chewing on a rope. Ash stood in awe at it. Under the artificial lights its scales glittered a snow white in color as its bright red eyes looked over at them. Even its tail flame was the same red in color as its eyes.

With a small chirrup the Charmander got up and waddled over to Bill and started sniffing. "It's feeding time," Bill said as he walked over to the kitchen set up in the nursery and got food ready for the Charmander.

"I-I don't understand," Ash said as Pikachu jumped down to examine the baby, "H-How?"

Bill looked over at Ash and gave the shocked teen a smile before he started to explain, "You see shinies are classified as a type of albinism in pokémon like how humans can had albino features without being fully albino. Natural white hair being one indication and blue eyes being another. True albinism, or complete albinism, is much much more rare than the shiny gene. Its a complete happenstance when it appears. So many factors have to be right in order for it to happen."

Bill moved to set the bowl of baby food down for Charmander before he continued his explanation, "True albinism is a complete lack of pigmentation and it shows that with skin and hair being white while the eyes are red. In Charmanders' case his scales and nails are white while his tail flame and eyes are that shade of red."

"And you just want me to have him?!" Ash asked as if the man in front of him had lost his mind.

Bill let out a hearty laugh and nodded, "Sure. Oak vouches for you from the way he speaks about you and the fact you are an OFRT at this young of an age tells me much about you. All I ask is for updates on him."

Ashs' mouth opened and closed a few times as he looked at the eating baby. Swallowing around the lump in his throat he nodded in consent and he felt his heart begin to race fast as he spoke softly, "I'll take him."


	11. Chapter 11

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> What if Ash was more knowledgeable about Pokémon and the world around him before starting his journey? What if he got an opportunity like no other an decided to take it? Well here's to a different start with our Ash! Slash! Comashipping!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is cross posted to my Fanfiction site under the same name as it is on here. A few things before you begin reading. Ash is older at the start of his journey than in cannon. He is 16 years of age. Ash will be a bottom in his relationships. He will also capture pokemon he had not during the cannon episodes. He will know or be taught how to use Aura since I feel like they really failed in using it to its potential in the episodes. If there are anymore details I'll be sure to address them as they come up.
> 
> Main Pairing: AshxPaul
> 
> Side pairing: AshxGary (One sided on Gary's part)
> 
> Rating: M (to be safe)
> 
> Disclaimer: I do not own pokemon it belongs to Game Freak, Nintendo, Creatures, The Pokemon Company, etc, nor do I write this for profit. This is for entertainment use only.
> 
> Enjoy! And don't forget to leave a review!
> 
> I do want to thank everyone who has left a review so far!
> 
> A/N: THIS IS PART 3 OF A MASSIVE UPDATE! (3/9)

The first thing Ash did after returning to the Center was let out his pokémon, besides Charmander, into his room where they could have some semblance of privacy to introduce their newest teammate. "Alright everyone," Ash said gaining the attention of his pokémon, "We got a new teammate. He's just a baby and I want to ask you all to be kind to him."

Nidorino was the first to move after Ash announced their new teammate. The larger poison type let out a small grunt and a nod while Sandile was next with a hiss and a light tail thump. Horsea trilled softly from where he was at in the tank. Pikachu, having already met their newest teammate, let out a soft cooing sound and ruffled his fur slightly.

"Thanks guys," Ash said softly as he grabbed the ball from his waist, "Well, here he is."

He lightly tapped the middle button causing the ball to open and with a red beam of light Charmander appeared with a soft growl. The albino shook slightly before peering around at his new surroundings and froze when he saw the other pokémon.

"It's alright," Ash said softly as he sent the baby a small smile, "They're your team now. Your family." The Charmander let out a small chirrup sound before turning back to the others. Surprisingly it was Sandile that approached first. Ash watched as the croc sniffed the small reptile before letting out a long low hiss before standing up tall and licked Charmanders' forehead. Slowly Charmanders' tail moved side to side before letting out a soft growl.

After Sandile, Nidorino approached to greet the baby of the group and Horsea let out a soft trill from his tank. Pikachu, having already greeted the reptile, stayed back and let the others have time with Charmander.

While the baby was getting use to the others Ash brought up his wrist with his Xtransceiver and scanned Charmander.

_Charmander Entry #004_

_The Lizard Pokémon_

_The flame that burns at the tip of its tail is an indication of its emotions and health. The stronger and brighter the flame the healthier and happier the Charmander is. The weaker the flame seek immediate help. When Charmander is happy the flame on its tail waves happily, but when mad the larger and stronger the flame is. Charmander tend to stay with their family unit for a few weeks before venturing out on their own. Though usually solitary pokémon, Charmander do tend to make their own family units when in close quarters with others for long lengths of time._

_This Charmander is male with the ability Blaze. It's current moves are, Growl, Ember, Scratch and has an egg move Dragon Tail._

_Notes: This Charmander has been put under the classification Complete Albinism and shows more inbred dragonic energy than usual Charmander._

"More dragonic energy," Ash mumbled softly under his breath, "Must be what Bill meant when he said that his parents were a Charizard and a Garchomp."

Looking up Ash saw that Charmander was sitting close to Sandile while Nidorino entertained the baby of the group. Ash let them be for a while as he went over what he wanted to do for the next Gym match. He decided to use Horsea in the beginning of the match and when the second pokémon comes out he would use Pikachu since the electric type has the advantage over the water types.

He thought Horsea would appreciate having some time in actually fighting since he was usually stuck in his ball.

With that plan in mind he started looking over moves that Horsea could learn to help him. Horsea already knew Bubble, Smokescreen, Water Gun, and Dragon Rage. Most moves Horsea would need TMs to learn, but there were a few he could learn just by working hard at it. One of which is Hydro Pump which is the next step after he learns Bubble Beam.

Once Horsea evolves it would be easier for him to learn dragon type moves like Dragon Pulse, Dragon Breath, and Dragon Dance. Until then Ash would help Horsea to get as strong as he could be.

First things first, "Horsea," Ash called out gaining the attention of his water type, "Ready for a Gym battle?"

Ash saw bright red eyes widen before the Horsea let out a loud trill and started swimming back and forth in the tank. Laughing Ash nodded and looked at the others. "Pikachu," Ash said looking at the electric type, "You'll be fighting as well. Nidorino I would let you fight, but you just evolved and you need to get more use to your body before a big fight like this. Sandile, you just wouldn't be the best type wise to fight in a water gym. I promise though that you can fight in the next gym."

Sandile just grumbled softly and gave him trainer a nod before turning to the Charmander beside him. It was obvious that the little one wasn't going to fight. Nidorino just nodded before laying down. His body was still stiff and sore from evolving and his bruises were still smarting. Charmander just looked at everyone confused.

"Do you want to see the match Charmander?" Ash asked as he saw the little lizard tilt his head in confusion. Bright red eyes looked up at him and the albino nodded slowly still unsure of what a match was.

"Let's go then," Ash said as he grabbed their balls to recall them. He shouldered his bag and let Pikachu jump up as usual before heading out. After asking Nurse Joy about the gyms' location he left the Center and turned right. He followed the path through town and stop to stare in awe of the gym.

The building was large and just on the edge of town closest to the water. Half of the building was open to the water while the rest of it was a mix of glass and brick. Most of the roof was made of glass as well and it surprised Ash seeing as they get frequent harsh storms through the area thanks to the lake affect. Walking up the path to the building he didn't really see many people around, but it didn't bother Ash.

The doors to the Gym were propped open for any visitor coming in so when Ash got closer he could see the inside of it before entering. The majority of the flooring was a pool with walkways going over the water and around the edges were stands were people could sit. Just in the opening of the door was a white desk with someone sitting behind it.

As he got closer to the desk he could see a familiar girl. Bright red hair and seafoam green eyes, Misty, if he remembered right. "Hello," he said as he approached her making her jump slightly and look up at him, "I'm here to challenge the gym."

"Oh hey!" she exclaimed as she stood up, "It's you! From the Gyarados and Mt. Moon incidents! Ash right?"

The teen nodded and gave her a small smile, "Yeah. Ash Ketchum."

Misty nodded and wrote it down on a piece of paper before ushering him to the large pool. Now that he was inside he could see that there were two elevated platform above the water and he could only assume that was where the trainers would be during the fight.

"I never really thanked you for saving me both times did I?" Misty asked as they walked towards the back of the building where he could see three other women by a few pokémon.

"It's okay," he said as he shook his head, "No need to thank me."

"But that's the thing!" Misty said earnestly, "I do need to thank you. If you hadn't saved me I wouldn't be here. Let me at least help you in some way."

Ash only frowned a small bit in response. He couldn't think of anything to say to her before they reached the three women. One had blond hair and green eyes, the one in the middle had blue hair and brown eyes, while the last one had pin hair and blue eyes.

"Ash," Misty said gaining the attention of all three women, "These are my older sisters Daisy, Violet, and Lily. Big sisters this is Ash, the person I told you about that saved me."

Daisy, the blond haired woman, smiled at him and walked forward to give him a tight hug, "Thank you so much! If you weren't there out baby sister would be gone and we wouldn't have known it," she said as she let go of him.

The blue haired woman, Violet, nodded in agreement as she added, "Like really. Thank you!"

"If there's anything we can do let us know!" Lily, the pink haired woman, said softly as she also gave him a smile.

Ash, feeling a bit overwhelmed, could only nod and clear his throat. "Um," he finally got out, "I really only want a battle really. I don't need anything. It was really just being there at the right time and really it was just Pikachu that helped both times. I couldn't have done anything without him."

"Really we insist!" Daisy said as her two sisters nodded behind her. Misty had to hide a smile as she watched her older sisters gang up on Ash to accept some form of reward. "What kind of pokémon do you have? We got loads of items and TMs!" she said as she grabbed his wrist and pulled him over to one of the side rooms, "Feel free to pick out a few! How about two of each? Two items and two TMs?"

Ash, having a hard time staying on his feet as he was being pulled, could only let out a small sigh and go with her. He did perk up when he heard of TMs, maybe there were a couple he could use on his pokémon to cover any holes in his team that he had at the moment. The pulling/walk didn't take long as they had finally reached a large room that had display cases and shelves along the walls. The display cases all had TMs inside of them while the shelves had various items on them.

"We mostly have TM and items for water types, but there are a few that we have that aren't for water types," Daisy said as she smile and finally let Ash go, "Feel free to look around, and when you have picked something you can just reach in and pick it up. Just let me know when you are finished so I can log them down in out inventory book!"

Nodding Ash started looking through the room. He started with the TMs first since he knew he need some time to think through the choices that was given to him. He read each and every one of them and their descriptions and he began plotting. There were many there he could use, but thanks to the TM pass Oak had given him he could get the ones he didn't pick another time in Celadon.

The scanned over them once more with that in mind and decided to grab the Scald TM and the Ice Beam TM. Nidorino and Horsea could use the Ice Beam and Horsea could also use the Scald. He would have to see if any of the others could use them, but they needed more ranged attacks and the ice type move was a bonus.

After retrieving them he looked over the items and their names since there were a few he didn't know of. Two of the items caught his eye. One was a necklace of sorts with a tear drop crystal casing and held clear blue water inside of it, it was called Mystic Water, and it helps boost water type moves. He planned on giving it to Horsea after he mastered Bubble Beam.

The other item on the other hand didn't have a name. The tag just read ? "Excuse me," Ash said as he looked over at Daisy, "Can you tell me anything about this? There isn't a name on the tag."

Daisy walked over to see what Ash was pointing at and saw the large round marble. It was about the size of a kiwi and mostly orange in color with a dual red and blue color swirl in the middle. "Oh that," she said as she turned to look at the smaller teen, "We don't know what it is. Violets' Dewgong showed up with it one day and wouldn't let us throw it out. We think it's just a marble, but Dewgong insisted we keep it. You can take it if you want. It's just gathering dust here."

"Are you sure?" Ash asked as he looked back at the marble. He knew it wasn't just a marble. It was like something was calling to him every time he looked at it.

"Yeah," she said and reached in to grab it, "Here."

When the marble landed in his palm he was surprised at how light it was. He was sure a marble of that size would be heavier than it actually was. "Thanks," he said pocketing it, "I'm done here."

Daisy gave him a smile and nodded before writing down what he had taken before leading him back to the main room of the gym. "Now," she said as she turned towards him once they had joined her sisters, "You said you wanted a battle? Well it's your lucky day! There isn't a show being put on so the Gym is free for battling. Just head up those stairs to the platform and we'll get started!"

Ash nodded and turned to go up the stairs Daisy had indicated. The stairs weren't long, but did lead up to a rather high platform above the water. He looked over to the other platform and to his surprise Misty was standing in it.

"This is a battle between Gym Challenger, Ash Ketchum, and Gym Leader Trainee, Misty Waterflower!" Lily announced from where she was by the edge of the pool just outside the psychic barriers, "This battle is a two on two and there are no substitutions. No items may be used as well and the battle ends when both pokémon on both sides are unable to battle. Gym Challenger releases first!"

Ash nodded and quickly pulled out Horseas' ball. "To battle!" he called out as he released his water type. Quickly catching the ball he saw Horsea looking determined up at Misty. He could just tell that Horsea was getting himself worked up. "Hey Misty!" he called out before she could release her pokémon.

"Yeah?"

"I got a new pokémon, a baby really, and he wanted to see a battle," Ash said, "Can I call him out?"

He saw Misty smile before she spoke, "Sure!"

Grinning he quickly pulled out Charmanders' ball and released the small albino. He ignored the shocked gasps from the others as he knelt beside the reptile. Ash told him that this was a battle and what it was for. He also said that a water battle was different than a land one and that he might not be able to see some of the fight thanks to the pokémon that might fight under the water.

He stood back up after getting a small growl from the reptile and gave Misty a thumbs up to let her know he was ready to continue.

He saw Misty nod before she released her own pokémon, "Take a splash, Staryu!" she called out and a star like pokémon appeared. It was golden-brown in color and had a large gem in the middle of its body. "Staryu Confuse Ray!"

Ash almost blanched at the move. He really hated Confuse Ray. "Dodge! Ink it up!" he called out and watched as the gem on Staryu begun to glow before letting out its attack. Thankfully Horsea dove down into the water to dodge it before popping back up and let out a spray of dark colored ink at Staryu.

The star like pokémon jumped out of the way and dove deep into the water. Ash was only able to tell Horsea to follow it and do what he wanted. He couldn't see into the water very well thanks to the florescent lighting and natural sunlight reflecting on the waters surface. Though he could see flashes of different colored lights from attacks.

He waited in tense silence for a few moments before Staryu broke the surface and hit the psychic barrier. Ash could see that the gem in the middle of its body was cracked a small bit and was dimmed down, but he didn't know if that it was knocked out or anything. He turned his eyes back down to the water and searched for Horsea. It took a few moments, but he did see the tiny sea horse in the large body of water.

"Staryu is unable to battle! Horsea wins!" Lily announced form down below, "Gym Challenger to release first!"

"Good job Horsea! Take a rest!" he called down before recalling his water type, "To battle Pikachu!"

His electric mouse let out a small chitter before rushing down the stairs and over onto one of the platforms on the water. His cheek sacs were already starting to let out small sparks in anticipation.

"Take a splash! Starmie!" Misty yelled and released another star like pokémon this time though the water type was purple with more star appendages on its back that spun rapidly as it let out a screech like call. The gem in its center glowed brightly in power.

"Pikachu start off with a Electro Ball then Agility," Ash called out as he watched the Starmie. He could tell that the purple pokémon in front of him was strong. Much stronger than the Staryu from before.

Pikachu without much further thinking threw a large condensed ball of electricity at the water type before bursting away from his spot with Agility. He kept up the Agility as his opponent readied a move.

"Starmie Psybeam!"

From the starfish came a bright purple beam straight at Pikachu. The mouse didn't know what hit him as he was slammed into the psychic barriers around the pool. He shook his head and looked over at the starfish with wide angry eyes.

His cheek pouch emitted a larger spark as he let out a powerful Thunderbolt before running right to his opponent. He was glad his trainer didn't call out any attacks at that moment as he nailed the starfish in its gem before it could move with an Iron Tail causing a spider web crack on its surface.

Pikachu used a Quick Attack to quickly move away from the water type and watched as the gems' light began to flicker in and out before it stayed on. The mouse quickly dodged another purple beam as it was sent his way and when he looked back he saw the platform he was just on was crumbling down into the water. He really didn't want to get hit with that again.

"Pikachu! Watch it!"

Looking up Pikachu saw his opponent coming at him rapidly and just managed to dodge it. The starfish landed in the water and Pikachu watched the water cautiously. Every few moments the starfish would surface and send an attack at Pikachu causing the yellow mouse to run around the platforms. Pikachu did manage to hit it a few times with his electricity and once with his Iron Tail. It was after hitting it with his Iron Tail that the Starmie didn't surface again for a while.

"Starmie! Recover!" Misty called out hoping for pokémon to hear her.

Ash's eyes widened and he shook his head. "Pikachu! Shock the water with all you have! Don't let it recover!" he yelled urgently to his pokémon praying to Arceus that Pikachu could Thunderbolt the water quick enough.

He watched as his pokémon gathered enough electricity that the usually red sac pouches shown bright pink in color with all the electricity in them. It was only a few moments later that Pikachu released it into the water causing the water to turn bright yellow end explode outward.

The light was so bright that Ash had to turn away or lose his sight.

When he turned back to look, once the light had died down, he saw Pikachu wobbling on the platform and a floating purple starfish not that far from him.

"Starmie is unable to battle! Pikachu is the winner!" Lily announced after a moment of silence, "Challenger Ash Ketchum has won!"

Ash let out a soft breath of relief as he clutched the railing around the platform. He looked down and saw Charmander looking at the electrified battle field with wide eyes. "Hows' that for a battle?" he asked the small reptile who looked up at him with eagerness in his bright red eyes, "Maybe that can be you next time huh?"

He let out a small chuckle as he saw the baby nod frantically. Looks as though he got another battler on his hands. Without another word he picked Charmander up and carried him down the steps so he could gather Pikachu. He figured that the others had already seen the reptile so recalling him was a fruitless endeavor seeing as they would want to see him.

Setting Charmander down outside of the pool he carefully made his way to the downed Pikachu and picked him up. The poor electric type was so out of it that his fur didn't have any electricity flowing through it. "You did a good job, bud," Ash said softly as he turned around and walked back to Charmander, "Rest now."

He felt Pikachu fully relax in his arms by the time he got back to the baby of the group. Once he was back onto dry land he turned to the quickly approaching group of girls. "Congrats Ash Ketchum!" Violet said as she held out an open tiny chest that had the Cascade Badge in it, "Here's your badge for beating the Cerulean Gym."

Ash smiled and reached out to grab it, "Thank you," he said as he placed it in his badge container.

"So Ash," Lily said casting a look down at the baby reptile, "What's this?"

"Just a baby Charmander," Ash said downplaying the actual reason for the question as he held back a smile. Lily just looked at him disgruntled until he said that Bill had told him it was a gene in Charmander that made him look as he does. Small sounds of understanding was heard as the four girls took in what he was saying.

It took thirty minutes just to leave the Gym after the girls had seen the Charmander and Ash couldn't get the giggles, squeals, and cooing out of his head as they admired the baby. In the end he had to return Charmander and quickly dash out of the Gym. He knew that wasn't going to be the last of it if the four had their way.

After leaving the Gym a whole badge heavier he made his way to the Center to get Pikachu looked over. He didn't like the way that Pikachu wasn't responding. He hoped that it was just because the mouse was tired.

"He just needs his electrical pouch filled back up with electricity," Nurse Joy told him half an hour later after Pikachu and Horsea was taken back, "There's a feeding station in the cafeteria for electric types. After a bit of eating he'll be up and perky again!"

Ash let out a soft sigh and nodded as he thanked the nurse, "Thank you Nurse Joy!"

"No problem," she said sending the obviously worried boy a smile, "Your Horsea is fantastic. Just a few bruises and a scratch at the base of his tail, but it has all been healed."

"Great!" Ash said as he took the ball back and picked up Pikachu, "Thanks once again!" He sent her a small smile before heading to the cafeteria. It wasn't until he heard his own stomach rumble that he checked the time and saw that it was well past noon. He released his other pokémon to get them something to eat as he got his own food. As he ate he watched as Pikachu greedily sucked up electricity from the machine meant for electric types.

After everyone was done he gathered them all again and head back up to his room only to release them there. "Alright everyone!" Ash said as he sat down on the edge of his bed, "We took on the Cerulean Gym and won! We got that Cascade Badge thanks to Horsea and Pikachu!"

Pikachu let out a small whirring noise as Horsea pushed out his chest and preened. The small water type was exceedingly happy that he won his first battle with his trainer.

Ash let them have their moment for a bit longer before continuing what he was saying, "I've decided that we will leave the day after tomorrow. Next Gym battle is in Vermilion, but to get there we have to go through Saffron. So get some rest because after tomorrow is a long journey to Vermilion."

He sat back in the bed and watched as Charmander growled out what he thought was an iteration of what the battle was like for him today. He smiled at them as the others listened to the baby. He would let them relax for the rest of the day and tomorrow. They deserved it before they set out for their next stepping stone to the League. Lt. Surge better watch out. He was coming and he was determined to beat him.


	12. Chapter 12

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> What if Ash was more knowledgeable about Pokémon and the world around him before starting his journey? What if he got an opportunity like no other an decided to take it? Well here's to a different start with our Ash! Slash! Comashipping!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is cross posted to my Fanfiction site under the same name as it is on here. A few things before you begin reading. Ash is older at the start of his journey than in cannon. He is 16 years of age. Ash will be a bottom in his relationships. He will also capture pokemon he had not during the cannon episodes. He will know or be taught how to use Aura since I feel like they really failed in using it to its potential in the episodes. If there are anymore details I'll be sure to address them as they come up.
> 
> Main Pairing: AshxPaul
> 
> Side pairing: AshxGary (One sided on Gary's part)
> 
> Rating: M (to be safe)
> 
> Disclaimer: I do not own pokemon it belongs to Game Freak, Nintendo, Creatures, The Pokemon Company, etc, nor do I write this for profit. This is for entertainment use only.
> 
> Enjoy! And don't forget to leave a review!
> 
> I do want to thank everyone who has left a review so far!
> 
> A/N: THIS IS PART 4 OF A MASSIVE UPDATE! (4/9)

Ash and his team had been on the road for the last week after leaving Cerulean. During the last week he started training Charmander since the small reptile had gotten himself worked up after seeing the last gym battle. The dark haired teen wasn't sure if he would put Charmander against Surge, but most likely he wouldn't seeing as he was just a baby and he knew Surge was hard to beat.

He had just sat down under a tree for a break when his Xtransceiver rang. Nidorino perked up as he heard the noise but then laid down when he saw it was just his trainers' wrist making noise. Bringing his wrist up as saw that it was his mother calling and he quickly answered it. He knew better than to ignore calls from the Professor.

"Ash!" Oak looked at the dark haired trainer on the line with a wide smile on his face, "How are you doing?"

Ash sent him a smile before saying he was doing good and that his egg was close to hatching if the band around his egg was reading everything right. He had been obsessing over the little monitoring app after the conditions of the egg changed a few days ago. It went from saying the baby inside was moving a small bit to it moving more often. He knew, from learning from said old man on the line, that an egg was really close to hatching when the baby inside the egg moved a lot.

"That's fantastic!" Oak said as he clasped his hands together, "So where are you heading now?"

"I'm about two hours out from Saffron," Ash said as he pulled up the map on his 'dex.

"Great! I need you to do something, but don't worry! It's for you," Oak replied before he began to explain what he needed, "Recently the police in the area as well as a few Ace Trainers had raided a building in the outskirts of the town. When they got there the conditions of the pokémon that were being held there was appalling. They've been calling around for trust worthy trainers to take in the pokémon that were healthy enough to be taken. I was hoping you were open to receiving one of them?"

Ash bit his lip as he listened to Oak. He wasn't so sure he could take another pokémon at the moment. He had just gotten Charmander and his egg was due to hatch any day now, but this was what the professor was paying him for. "Okay," Ash said agreeing to take in one of the pokémon, "Do you know what kind it is?"

Oak shook his head as he replied, "All I know is that it is one of the worse treated pokémon in the bunch and that it is a psychic type. The police chief, Julia Jenny, said that it was very timid and easily frightened."

Ash nodded and asked where he was to get the pokémon before the call ended. Oak told him that he would call ahead and let the police know he was coming to get the pokémon in question. With that he got up and continued on his way to the city.

He kept Nidorino out with him as well as Pikachu, as usual. They didn't rush too much since they were enjoying the nice breeze and sunlight that filtered through the trees. As they walked Ash looked up what he could find about the city they were about to enter.

Saffron City was the largest and busiest city in Kanto, but it wasn't hard to believe since the Metro Train was there. The train connected Kanto and Johto together. Not only was it busy because of the massive center building, Silph Co. From what he learned growing up was that Silph Co. was the main manufacturer of many of the tool they used today. They created the pokéballs, TMs, Silph Scope, and Potions. He knew there were others, but those were the ones he knew of on the top of his head.

From looking at the city map he saw that while Silph Co. had taken over the middle of the city the Pokémon Gyms had dominated in the north east. Only one of the gyms though was the official Indigo League Gym where trainers, like himself, would go and battle for a chance to get a badge for the Indigo League. He knew he wasn't even close to being able to fight Sabrina, if all the rumors are true.

He had just made it into the City by the time he thought he would, and he was a bit overwhelmed. The city was loud and bustling. It was really different than Pallet or the other towns he had been in. Ash took his time getting through crowds and other people that just wanted to get in his way, but instead of yelling at them he stayed quiet. He didn't want to cause any trouble.

Soon enough he was standing in front of the police station and had already recalled Nidorino, who had been pressing himself against Ash to give his trainer a small bit of comfort. He told Pikachu to hop into his bag since it was common sense to not take a released pokémon into a police station. That was just begging for trouble.

Taking a deep breath he walked into the building and greeted to the sight and sounds of a trainer yelling at an officer. The trainer was tall and had wavy blue hair that fell into dark colored eyes. He wore sunglasses in his hair and a bright pink shirt with a brown tasseled vest on it and a red scarf around his neck. He also wore black pants and trainer shoes on his feet. He had his arms crossed over his chest and an enraged, but smug look on his face as he yelled at the officer.

"I told ya! I had nothing to do with it!" he yelled before letting out a huff of air, "It's not mine I tell ya!"

The officer, a kind looking man with dark brown hair and green eyes, simply said, "He is. He's under your registry and so therefore you are to take the blame on his condition and kidnapping."

"And I told you fucker! He's not mine!"

The officer quickly lost his kind look, "I think a night in the cells will do you some good," he said before motioning to a different officer that had handcuffs in her hands to take him back. Ash watched as the older teen was quickly cuffed and taken to the back still screaming at the top of his lungs that his father would hear about this.

"I'm sorry about that," a female voice said behind Ash causing him a jerk a small bit before turning around, "How can I help you?"

The officer had teal colored hair and rather pretty amber eyes, "I'm looking for Officer Jenny," Ash said softly, "Professor Oak called ahead for me."

Bright amber eyes brightened more as he spoke, "I'm Officer Jenny. I have the pokémon in my office if you'll follow me," she said before turning around to lead him to her office. He walked a bit behind her as she led him up the stairs to one of the further offices. As they walked, in silence, he noticed he was just a bit taller than she was and it surprised him a small bit. He must have grown a bit since leaving home.

"Here we are," Jenny said breaking Ash of his thoughts. She opened the door after scanning her card on the reader outside of her door, "Now how much had Oak told you of the pokémon?"

Ash walked in as he spoke, "Just that it was a psychic and rather timid and scared."

Jenny nodded and grabbed the ball which he assumed the pokémon was in. "When we raided the house we found this little girl locked away in a room by herself in a too small of a cage. She was injured and had previous scars on her body from what Nurse Joy says, but other than that she was just really under nourished. She must have been a recent acquisition. I don't really need to question you if what Professor Oak is saying about you is true. All I ask is that you bring her back after a while so we can get an update on her," she said softly before turning her computer on to register the pokémon under Ash.

He nodded and promised the officer that he would bring her back. He was honestly curious to what kind of pokémon she was. She would be his first little girl in the family. It was only after she was done registering his newest family member that he asked what was going on with the trainer downstairs. He wasn't going to press Jenny if she wouldn't tell him because honestly it wasn't his business. He was just being curious.

"Honestly," Jenny said as she leaned back in her chair, "He's a person who shouldn't own any pokémon. This is his second time, at least being caught, that he has treated his pokémon so bad and then just abandoned it just because he deemed it too weak. This time though he actually kidnapped the pokémon three months ago from a shady lab up north. Of course we didn't know it was a shady lab until after trying to return the pokémon. Needless to say it was taken down, the owners fined and jailed, and many pokémon in need to be put down due to what the owner had done."

Ash was silent after she had spoken. He honestly wondered how people could just be so nasty to another being. He couldn't fathom it. "C-Can I have it? If it needs a home?" he asked softly although he knew he had just gotten a pokémon in need of her own attention, but he couldn't stomach just leaving it if it needed help. He did need to be careful though with the amount of pokémon he was getting he only had a few more spots on his team if he gets this one.

He stayed quiet as Jenny looked him over. Her eyes were filled with a calculating look as she determined what his angle was. After a few moments of silence she broke it by saying, "You'll have to talk to Officer De'Galos. He's in charge of the case."

Ash nodded, "The Officer that the blue haired guy was yelling at?" When he got a nod he stood up, ball in hand, and walked out of the room with officer Jenny behind him following until they reached the main floor of the police station. Before he could approach Officer De'Galos, Jenny, approached him and spoke to him in soft tones. He watched as green eyes looked at him a few times as Jenny spoke to him before he opened his mouth.

They conversed for a while before the duo started his way. He felt Pikachu move in his bag a bit before settling down and he guessed the electric was picking up his nervousness. "So Officer Jenny here says you're interested on taking on another pokémon?" De'Galos said as he came to a stop in front of Ash. He was a bit taller than him making Ash peer up as he spoke.

"Yes," he said confidently with a sharp nod.

"If you are to take this one there's a few things you're gonna need to know," the officer said as he crossed his arms over his chest, "it's not a native to Kanto and was abandoned about a week ago chained up and unable to hunt. Ever since we took him in he's shown aggressive tendencies and isn't afraid to take a bite out of someone."

Ash stared at De'Galos in his eyes as he spoke, "I'm sure I'll take him. In my team I've got a male Sandile with Moxie. If I can handle him I can handle a bit of an aggressive and neglected pokémon."

De'Galos and himself starred at each other for a few moments as Jenny watched them, her eyes going back and forth between them like watching a tennis match. Ash didn't look away. He stood his ground as the harsh gaze of the taller officer looked into his own eyes. Ash couldn't really tell what the officer was looking for in him, but he guessed he passed as the officers' gaze softened and a smile graced his lips.

"All right," De'Galos said as his stance relaxed, "The pokémon is currently under Nurse Joys' care at the Center. Give me a few minutes and we'll go together."

Ash nodded as he smiled back. He moved over to the seating area and took a seat to wait for De'Galos to finish what he needed to. As the officer said it didn't take long at all for De'Galos to finish what he needed to do and so they, meaning De'Galos, himself, and Jenny were on the way to the Center. As they walked Ash tried his best to ignore the looks they were given and he guessed it was a site. A small teen walking between two officers.

The walk wasn't a long one, but it was long enough for Pikachu to finally get enough of being in the bag. The small mouse climbed out and got back on his usual perch on Ashs' shoulders. The sudden appearance prompted Jenny to ask what other pokémon he had besides the Sandile he told them about. The conversation about his pokémon lasted long enough for them to enter the Center and for De'Galos to speak with Joy.

It wasn't long after that; that they were taken to one of the back rooms were the wall with the door had a large window of glass in the middle of the wall. As Ash looked through the glass he didn't see anything, but a rather comfortable bed and some torn up toys. The food and water bowls were toppled over and empty while stuffing littered the floor, but nothing gave away what pokémon was in the room.

"Okay," Joy said as she brought her key ring out and turned to look at them, "This is the room. Who's all going in?"

Before the officers could say anything Ash cut in, "If I may," he began, "I want to go in by myself." Ash could see the incredulous looks on their faces and he continued speaking before they could say anything, "If what you've been yelling me about him is true then he's being aggressive because he's scared. The more people in his space the more aggressive he'll be because all of a sudden his safe space is being invaded by what he deems as danger. I want to go in by myself."

He looked at both officers and the nurse as they shared looks between the three of them. A few tense moments passed before they agreed to let him in by himself. He shrugged his bag off his shoulders and told Pikachu to stay there and guard he bag as Nurse Joy unlocked the door with a soft click. She stepped back as he stepped forward and grabbed the knob.

He took a deep breath as he slowly opened the door and then closed it behind himself as he fully stepped into the room. There wasn't any kind of scent to the room that could tell him what kind of pokémon was in there with him so he walked a few steps into the room and sat down on the floor.

Ash sat still as his eyes slowly looked across the room. He kept his body as relaxed as he could. He knew he was being watched and it wasn't only by the trio of humans outside the glass, which he was surprised to note that it like a mirror only showing him the inside of the room instead of outside into the hall.

He sat there for what seemed like a while before a soft shuffling sound reached his ears from behind him. He didn't move though. He wanted the mystery pokémon to get comfortable with him being in the room. He wasn't doing anything to set him off.

Slowly the pokémon appeared in his vision as it walked around him observing Ash. The small four legged creature had slate gray fur covering most of his body and had black and red accents through the gray fur. His ears were triangular with dark insides, and he has a large tuft of fur tipped with red on top of his head.

Bright sky blue eyes peered at him with a cautious look in his eyes. Ash could see that the fox like creature had red fur covered eyelids and two circular red markings above his eyes. Around his neck was a thick covering of black fur and each of his legs were tipped with red giving him red paws. His tail, also tipped red, and short and fluffy looking.

Ash now knew what the mystery pokémon was. He had seen it only once on tv.

Ash made no movement as the tiny fox slowly made his way closer to him. He watched as the little fox stretched as far as he could to catch his scent before jumping back as Ash slowly extended his hand. Ash stopped moving his hand as the pokémon let out a growl. "It's okay," Ash whispered as he looked at him kindly, "I won't hurt you."

Bright blue eyes looked up and looked into his eyes, but Ash didn't look away. "Do you want to come with me?" Ash asked softly, "Want to become part of my family?"

Ash watched as large blue eyes widened at the word family. It was then that Ash knew that was all this little pokémon wanted. He watched as the small fluffy tail moved slightly in a half hearted attempt at a wag before he took a step forward. Ash once again stayed still as the fox like pokémon settled into his lap and it was only when he let out soft purrs that Ash moved his hand to cover the slate grey midsection.

He was horrified to feel his ribs under his hand as he ran his fingers through surprisingly soft fur. "Thank you," Ash said softly catching the pokémons' attention, "For giving me this ounce of trust. I promise I won't break it. Welcome to the family, Zorua."


	13. Chapter 13

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> What if Ash was more knowledgeable about Pokémon and the world around him before starting his journey? What if he got an opportunity like no other an decided to take it? Well here's to a different start with our Ash! Slash! Comashipping!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is cross posted to my Fanfiction site under the same name as it is on here. A few things before you begin reading. Ash is older at the start of his journey than in cannon. He is 16 years of age. Ash will be a bottom in his relationships. He will also capture pokemon he had not during the cannon episodes. He will know or be taught how to use Aura since I feel like they really failed in using it to its potential in the episodes. If there are anymore details I'll be sure to address them as they come up.
> 
> Main Pairing: AshxPaul
> 
> Side pairing: AshxGary (One sided on Gary's part)
> 
> Rating: M (to be safe)
> 
> Disclaimer: I do not own pokemon it belongs to Game Freak, Nintendo, Creatures, The Pokemon Company, etc, nor do I write this for profit. This is for entertainment use only.
> 
> Enjoy! And don't forget to leave a review!
> 
> I do want to thank everyone who has left a review so far!
> 
> A/N: THIS IS PART 5 OF A MASSIVE UPDATE! (5/9)

Ash was sitting in his room at the Center after coming back from the police station. His other pokémon had already met Zorua and had taken him in as well as they did with Charmander. The only one left to be seen was his little girl. The original reason he went to the police station.

He was rolling her ball in his hand as the others played around at his feet, well except for Sandile. The small croc was sunning himself by the windows with his jaws open to release heat. He only took a few moments before pressing the button on the ball and finally releasing his little girl. What appeared left his jaw dropped.

The first thing he noticed was the bright blue hair on her head that was cut into a bowl cut before the humanoid shape took him by surprise since his other pokémon didn't have humanoid bodies. The next thing he saw was the two orange horns parting her hair in the middle with the larger horn in the front. It looked as though she was wearing a long nightgown over her body and when Ash looked back up towards her head he saw two bright orange amber colored eyes peaking out from behind blue hair.

As he took in her appearance he also noticed the small scars officer Jenny mentioned as well as the few fresh scrapes she had. "Hi," Ash said softly so he didn't scare her as he smiled down at her, "My name's Ash. I'm going to be taking care of you from now on."

The tiny shiny Ralts held her skinny arms to her chest and trilled out a soft tune that sounded like softly chiming bells. Behind her his other pokémon stopped to look at her. Her voice was so soft and sounded angelic. Pikachu perked up and hopped over to stand by Ash and let out his own chittering sound. He turned back to Ash and mimicked hitting his arm a few times before pointing at the little shiny.

It took a moment before Ash figured out what Pikachu was trying to reenact. He looked at her wide eyed and told her that he wasn't going to hurt her in anyway and that she was going to be a part of their family. If she wanted to that is.

The next thing he knew he had his arms full of his little girl and she was crying, but he knew it wasn't from her being sad. She was happy. He just held her until she was calmed down. Afterwards he kept holding her as she was quite content on staying in his lap to be close to him. He did manage to get his Xtransceiver to scan her.

_Ralts #280_

_The Feeling Pokémon_

_Ralts senses the emotions of people using the horns on its head. This Pokémon rarely appears before people. But when it does, it draws closer if it senses that the person has a positive disposition. Ralts can also sense when a person or pokémon are hostile. If Ralts is feeling negative emotions for too long then it can become sick and must get treatment immediately._

_This Ralts is female and knows the moves, Teleport, Psychic, Draining Kiss, Hypnosis, and Shadow Ball. This Ralts also has the egg move, Disable._

_Its ability is Synchronize._

_Note: This Ralts is under the classification Shiny._

Ash hummed softly as he looked over her stats and move set once more before looking down at her. He couldn't help but let a smile grace his lips as he saw that she had fallen asleep in his lap. Her small chest moved up and down and with each breath of air out her soft blue hair moved up just a small bit with her breathing before falling back down onto her face.

"Zorua," Ash whispered gaining the small foxs' attention and he waved his wrist showing him the Xtransceiver. He asked the small fox to sit still for just a moment as he scanned him so he could get Zoruas' information.

_Zorua #570_

_The Tricky Fox Pokémon_

_Zorua tend to protect themselves from danger so they hide their true identities by transforming into people and Pokémon. Zorua usually choose to take the form of a small quiet child and to escape from a enemy they take their enemy's form to confuse them. When not in their pack/family they like to stay transformed to keep themselves safe._

_This Zorua is male and knows the moves, Fury Swipes, Assurance, Protect, and Dark Pulse. Zorua also has an egg move, Extrasensory._

_Its has the ability Illusion._

"That's unusual," Ash murmured softly as he saw the egg move, "A dark type with a psychic type move." He licked his lip softly before he started taking notes to get his two new family members up to where the others were besides Charmander. He was just a baby after all.

Pikachu was so close to learning Slam. The craters he left in the ground were getting bigger and bigger. Ash guessed that the ketchup covered treats he was giving the electric mouse was a great motivator. The next step after the electric mouse masters Slam is to slowly start to add electricity around him like a ball. He had to most confidence in his starter.

Nidorino, now that he has gotten use to his new body, has made fantastic progress. Ash had even decided to give him a new task in completing a new combo move, Poison Drill, which was a mix of Horn Drill and Poison Sting. Nidorino was already excelling in using his poison and all he needed to do was hone Horn Drill while releasing his poison. Ash had told Nidorino that he had another new move for him when the purple reptile could prove it to him that he deserved it.

Sandile had to be upgraded from the flat rock he had been using to a larger rock once the croc had shown him that he was getting use to the weight and was getting faster. He also had Sandile chewing on ice every now and then to get the croc use to the cold, which was hard for him considering he was reptilian and preferred the hotter dry climates, so he could start learning Ice Fang.

Horsea was getting closer to learning Bubble Beam. Slowly but surely the Water Gun/Bubble technique that the seahorse created to use was paying off and Ash had promised him a new move along with the Mystic Water when he mastered the move. That just made the dragon pokémon more determined.

Charmander, Ralts, and Zorua would all start off at the same pace unless they show that they could advance to a more harder training. He was thinking of letting Ralts, unless she says other wise, be the healer of the group. While he did want her to learn to fight, if only to defend herself, he knew with her past of abuse and how timid and shy she was she wouldn't be much of a fighter. Unless she proved him wrong that is.

Zorua, he could see as a rather sneaky heavy hitter. With his ability with illusions and able to blend into the background, Zorua, could become one of the more formidable fighters on his team. He would have to learn to help Zorua master his illusions further and how to use them better in a battle. Until then Zorua needed to work on the basics.

Charmander, while he has already started his training, was still a beginner. Ash was tempted to ask Horsea if he could teach Charmander Dragon Rage, but he didn't want to rush Charmanders' training. The little albino needed to foremost learn how to use his legs without tripping over himself. Ash has had to comfort the tiny lizard a few times in the last couple of days after the albino had tripped over his own feet and slammed down on the ground.

His egg hatching was honestly on the back burner of his thoughts. He was already mentally, physically, and had plenty of materials prepared for the Riolus' arrival whenever it was. He had plenty of baby blankets for the first couple of weeks of its life before the Riolu could be placed in a ball. He had chew toys, a mixed formula that was recommended to him by Oak, and a few other items to keep it entertained while they trained. Oak had even suggested he read a book for first time baby pokémon caregivers.

Needless to say he had downloaded it onto his Xtransceiver right after getting off the phone with Oak.

With plans in place Ash was quick to leave Saffron to continue onto Vermilion. He had the paths he wanted to take planned out along with rest stops and he had even looked at the weather for the next week of travel. He was just glad it would be bright and sunny for the majority of his travel.

Surprisingly Zorua wanted to stay out of his ball with Sandile and Pikachu while they walked along the paths. The small fox did keep behind him though, but Ash counted it as a sign that the little pokémon trusted him enough to stay out and close like this.

It wasn't until early evening that Ash decided to stop for the night on one of the planned stops he had planned out earlier. Sadly it wasn't near a pond so he couldn't release Horsea, but he was able to release everyone else. After settling everyone down and getting a fire going he settled onto his sleeping bag.

He gave Zorua and Sandile a bit more food than the others when he got them dinner seeing as they were the ones out and about all day since they left Saffron, and all Pikachu did was ride on his shoulder. As they ate Ash decided to read a bit of the journal of his many times grandfather.

_March XX, XXXX_

_Day one of training._

_Today marks the first day of Aura training for me. My Mentor, Master Roque, told me to keep a journal from now on. He said that it would/could guide the next generation of Aura wielders and that it was better to write in it everyday than wait until later when the memories of the time were too old to recall perfectly._

_I should introduce myself then, if someone in the future is indeed reading this. My name is Aaron Red Ketchum and I am sixteen years old at the time my training began. I've been residing in the Kingdom of Rota for the past two years after my mother relocated us from our small village near the southern coast._

_The Aura Guardians of the Kingdom quickly noticed I had the gift and separated me from my mother to begin my training._

_Today, for the first day of training, Master Roque explained what Aura was and why some people could use it while others couldn't. He said that the people chosen to wield Aura were chosen by Arceus to keep the balance of everything living. He said it with so much conviction I'm sure he could even convince the hardiest of skeptics._

_The next lesson I had to learn was how to meditate properly._

_The first time I meditated I had sunk too deep into the Aura that filled my very core. It was all consuming and I couldn't tell what was up and what was down. I do highly suggest meditating with another person there to wake you up. Master Roque warned me that if I sink too low into it I wouldn't be able to get out of it. He said there were many that had sunk in to low and they never came out of it._

_He then showed me the medical facility that held those that had fallen deep into the vastness of Aura. He said there were even some there that had fallen into their comas years ago._

_Needless to say, I learned my lesson with that visit._

_End of day one of training._

_A. R.K._

Ash took a deep breath as he looked up from the book. He quickly grabbed a blank notebook and began to write what he could interpret from the text along with some questions he would find the answers for. Now he knew he needed to be with someone before he started his training, but that just gave him time to keep reading and gathering information. His ancestor didn't write anything about how to meditate so he needed to look that up as well. Ash was sure it was just more than sitting down with his legs crossed and closing his eyes like he had seen on tv before.

After finishing his writing he packed it away at the bottom of his bag under his egg along with the journal. He would read another entry the next time they stopped to sleep. Speaking of sleep Ash looked up and saw his pokémon had already chosen their sleeping companions and were already deeply asleep. The only two not asleep was little Ralts and Sandile, who was keeping watch like he usually does. His little girl was sitting next to him and leaning over onto his leg.

He gave her a small smile before picking her up to hold her close. "Ready to sleep?" Ash whispered softly into her hair as his hand covered her back. He felt her nod as she clung onto him and slowly he moved them both down into a lying position with him on his side and her snuggled close to himself.

"Goodnight, sweetpea," Ash whispered softly before closing his eyes and slowly falling asleep.

* * *

It was close to the middle of the next day when Ash was able to battle something other than the usual wild pokémon around him in which Zorua and Charmander had fought them off. Travis, his opponent, was actually the one to approach him while he was resting for a battle. He was getting ready to battle Surge and needed as much practice as he could get.

Travis had told him that he had already lost to the man once before.

Intrigued Ash agreed to the battle and quickly sent Sandile onto the battle field seeing as the croc was going to be the main battler during the Vermilion Gym battles.

The pokémon Travis sent out was tiny and covered in a green leaf like dress. On its hands were two different colored flowers and on its head were sharp looking leaves in the shape of a crown. "Roselia! Razor Leaf!"

"Underground Sandile!" Ash called out as he saw the two flowers glow brightly before a large wall of razor sharp leaves came barreling towards Sandile. His small croc was quick to dig into the earth, but a few leaves did manage to leave their marks on his tail. Ash waited on giving him commands as the attack ended. After a moment of silence he knew that Travis was waiting on him to start of.

Ash kept silent except for a stomp to the ground. This was something he was working on with Sandile since the croc battled best when underground. While his hearing was good; his sensing of vibrations was even better. Sandile already knew where he was and if Sandile could tell what Ash wanted with a stomp it would give them a one up on land battles because their opponent wouldn't know what they had planned next.

Just like in training Sandile burst out of the ground with his jaws gaping revealing each pearly white sharp tooth ready to sink into its prey. Ash managed to see embers sparking through the razor sharp teeth before they sunk into the soft leafy body of Roselia causing the grass type to cry out as flames escaped from his bite.

Before Sandile could whip his head back and forth, like he would have done after capturing his prey, the Roselia used Protect along with Poison Sting to get him away. Sandile hissed as sharp hypodermic needles filled with poison pierced his skin around his mouth. He was more concentrated on getting the irritating needles out of his skin than he was paying attention to his opponent. He wasn't able to dodge the Razor Leaf even though his trainer shouted at him to move.

Ash watched as his croc was blasted back towards himself and before Ash could call off the battle as a loss to himself Sandile stood up and let out a loud snarl. Sandile picked himself up and ran as fast as he could at his opponent, about to be turned prey, and used Assurance with as much power his poisoned body could handle.

Ash heard Travis call out a move, but it was too late as the Assurance had already hit sending the small grass type back and into a tree. His Sandile was about to charge once again before Ash commanded him to hold, and while Sandile didn't charge the command did make him mad. The croc was banging his tail onto the ground causing craters and cracks to form where he was hitting.

"Roselia is out!" Travis called from where he was beside his partner, "You win!"

Ash let out a small sigh as he slowly approached his Sandile. He could see the red haze over the dark eyes showing him that Moxie was running its course through the small croc. "Sandile," Ash said softly gaining the growling crocs' attention, "You did great. You won!"

Ash saw that his soft words were having a good calming affect on the croc so he kept at it until the red haze left the dark eyes and Sandiles' body sagged down onto the ground. He slowly reached over and ran his hand over the heated scales before picking the tired pokémon up. The small croc deserved some meat tonight after his victory.

Getting up and turning around he saw that Travis had already revived his Roselia and after giving over the agreed upon money the other trainer left while murmuring about needing to get stronger.

Letting out a deep sigh Ash continued on walking after recalling Sandile into his ball so the croc could get some rest. He was frustrated with himself. He's been working with Sandile with his Moxie, but they've had no luck.

So far they've gotten lucky with him being able to calm down the croc, but Ash was worried if the next time Sandile was being filled with Moxie was the last one. He could honestly say that he was terrified that Sandile wouldn't listen to him or that he was too late to calm the croc down and he tore into his opponent. He was scared that Sandile would be taken from him if it happened.

He honestly didn't know how to help Sandile control himself through it.

A sharp bark broke him from his downward spiral of thoughts and looking down Ash saw Zorua looking up at him. His fluffy tail moved back and forth a small bit once he got his trainers' attention. He gave the little fox a smile and knelt to scratch behind his ear as he thanked him for breaking him out of his thoughts.

Feeling a small bit better Ash continued on.

* * *

"Gyaaah!"

The sudden scream that broke the usual noise of forestry startled Ash and his pokémon. They were almost to Vermilion having traveled constantly over the last few days with as little breaks his body could take, just an hour out from the town, when Ash decided to make a stop by a shaded pond so Horsea could get out of his ball before entering the town.

Ash shot up from where he was under a tree by the pond and started looking around for the scream when he heard it again. He recalled all of his pokémon except for Pikachu before he started running towards the scream.

The teen heard the sounds of running and branches breaking before he broke through trees to a clearing. In the clearing was a small child being surrounded by Raticate. The pack of large rat like pokémon looked to be angry over something or another and just as the lead Raticate, the largest and most scarred of the pack, lunged at the child Ash sent out Pikachu to intercept.

In a quick thought Ash sent out Sandile and Nidorino to help the electric mouse as he picked up the small tot and moved back. "Nidorino, use your poison! Pikachu, shock them all! Sandile, trap them!" he called out as he saw that they were herding the pack together.

Just as he saw Sandile disappear into the ground he turned to the small child in his arms. He had bright blue eyes and a head full of light brown hair. The child couldn't be older than five.

"Are you okay?" Ash asked as he looked over the boy to make sure he wasn't too badly injured. There were a few bruises popping up and a scratch here and there, but they had already stopped bleeding and didn't look bad.

"Uh-huh," the small child said as he clung onto Ash.

"What's your name?" he asked as he glanced over to his pokémon, who had finally knocked out the pack of rats, before turning to the kid, "My name is Ash."

"Leon," the blond haired tot said softly, "I wanna go home."

Ash stood up and put the child on his hip as he nodded and asked where home was as he started walking back to where he was before he heard the screaming. Leon told him he was staying in Vermilion with his Uncle while his Mommy and Daddy was working on a big ship.

Leon then told him that he left the Gym his Uncle worked at when he saw the cutest pokémon across the street and when he went to get a closer look at it the big mean pokémon chased him away and out of the town. "I was soooo scared!" Leon said as he looked at his rescuer with big bright blue eyes.

"It's okay now," Ash said as he gave the small tot a smile, "You're safe now and will be home soon. We don't have that much longer until we get to Vermilion."

By the time they made it to Vermilion the town was in chaos. There were police officers everywhere and several electric type pokémon running around. Confused as to what was happening Ash continued on walking with Leon still on his hip and he just made it before the Center when he was stopped by a large pokémon.

The pokémon was covered in dark orange fur, but had a white belly. Its large ears were brown on the outside while yellow on the inside and it had a long tail with a lightning bolt at the end. Pikachu looked at its evolution curiously from his shoulder as the Raichu looked at the child on his trainers hip to his trainer.

The larger electric mouse let out a hiss and made its cheeks spark dangerously while glaring at Ash.

"Rai!" Leon called out happily and bounced on Ashs' hip, "Down Ash!"

Slowly, as to not make the Raichu angrier, Ash let Leon down. It seemed as though the little kid knew this pokémon and he knew better than to make a pokémon that was showing aggression more angry. Leon let out a small giggle and embraced the Raichu once it stopped making its cheek sacs spark.

"Who are you?" A deep booming voice said from behind Ash, "And why do you have my nephew?!"

Turning around Ash was met with a broad chest. Following the muscled shirt covered chest he met bright blue eyes on a scowling face. He could recognize that face anywhere.

The uncle of the kid he just saved was Lt. Surge.


	14. Chapter 14

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> What if Ash was more knowledgeable about Pokémon and the world around him before starting his journey? What if he got an opportunity like no other an decided to take it? Well here's to a different start with our Ash! Slash! Comashipping!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is cross posted to my Fanfiction site under the same name as it is on here. A few things before you begin reading. Ash is older at the start of his journey than in cannon. He is 16 years of age. Ash will be a bottom in his relationships. He will also capture pokemon he had not during the cannon episodes. He will know or be taught how to use Aura since I feel like they really failed in using it to its potential in the episodes. If there are anymore details I'll be sure to address them as they come up.
> 
> Main Pairing: AshxPaul
> 
> Side pairing: AshxGary (One sided on Gary's part)
> 
> Rating: M (to be safe)
> 
> Disclaimer: I do not own pokemon it belongs to Game Freak, Nintendo, Creatures, The Pokemon Company, etc, nor do I write this for profit. This is for entertainment use only.
> 
> Enjoy! And don't forget to leave a review!
> 
> I do want to thank everyone who has left a review so far!
> 
> A/N: THIS IS PART 6 OF A MASSIVE UPDATE! (6/9)

Ash scrambled back a bit so he wasn't nose to chest with the rather large man, but before he could even open his mouth little Leon pipped up, "Uncle! Mr. Ash saved me from the big scary pokémon!"

Ash saw Lt. Surges' eyes soften as he looked down at the tiny tot before he scooped him up in his arms. From behind Ash the Raichu walked over to the duo and settled down by the larger man.

"Did he?" Surge said as he settled him on one hip before signaling to some policeman that they could leave.

"Mhmm!" Leon hummed with a serious look on his face, "His pokémon were sooooo cool! They took the big meanies down in no time!"

"I suppose a thank you is in order," Surge said as he took down at Ash.

Ash shook his head as Pikachu let out a small cooing noise, "No need for thanks. I just did what anyone would have done," he said as he gave Surge a small hesitant smile.

Surge stared at him for a moment before telling to follow them. Without anything else being said the older man turned and began walking away, which Ash had to jog and then quickly walk just to keep up with him. The short journey was silent as Ash quickly realized that they were heading to a large gym by the water. It was clear to see where they were heading thanks to the fact that there wasn't very much obstruction in the way.

Entering the gym Ash was greeted to the sight of a very large pokémon in the middle of the fighting area. The beast was quite larger than he was and he knew if he got close enough to it he would have to tilt his head almost all the way back just to look it in the face. The majority of it was covered in yellow fur with thick black stripes on it. Ash could see two swinging tails behind it.

"That's Uncles' Electivire!" Leon whispered over Surges' shoulder as the small child saw his look at the beast, "He gives the best piggyback rides!"

Ash held in a chuckle as he saw Surges' shoulders tense. He supposed the older man didn't want the fact that he and his pokémon had a softer side. It wasn't like he was going to try getting a piggyback ride from the beast; he would just take Leons' word for it.

He was led to the back to a rather spacious office that held another pokémon, but Ash wasn't familiar with it. It look like a large cat and was covered by thick black and blue fur. Ash could see that its eyes were a bright unnerving yellow as it opened its eyes.

"Tell me," Surge said as he set Leon down, who went over to the large pokémon, "What do you want? I can't let something like this pass. You saved a very important person to me and that's not going to be let go like its inconsequential."

Ash was already shaking his head, "I don't want anything from you," he said as his Pikachu hopped down and began to slowly approach the cat like beast, "I was just at the right place at the right time. I was only coming here to battle you before I continued my journey."

Ash kept an eye on his Pikachu, but his need for caution was unwarranted as the large cat let out a small purring sound and began grooming his mouse. He heard Surge let out a sigh and a small thump, but when he looked over he just saw that the man sat down, "You are very frustrating," Surge said after a moment of silence.

"Professor Oak likes to say that too," Ash quipped as he gave the larger man a cheeky grin.

The large man let out a snort before he spoke, "Well, it's a bit late to have a battle. How about this? You'll have the very first battle tomorrow morning IF! You let me give you something as a thanks for saving him, and you can't refuse it."

Ash let out a small sigh and gave the older man a look which gave off the air that he wasn't happy about it. "Fine," Ash groaned out, "I'm not picking it though. I don't need or want anything."

"That's fine with me!" Surge said as he let out a booming laugh before holding his hand out towards Ash, "Give me your info and I'll send over some money and give your info to a breeder I know to let you pick any pokémon you want. On me of course!"

"Seriously what's with people wanting to give me pokémon," Ash grumbled as he gave Surge his info. He did say he would accept it and not refuse whatever the man gave him. He did get to have the first battle that next morning. He watched as Surge turned on his computer and quickly typed his information on it before he began an email. After a moment of Surge beginning his email Ashs' Xtransceiver let out a small ding.

Looking down Ash saw a notification about his banking information, which his mother had started for him when he was younger when he said he wanted to go on a journey, and saw that some money had been deposited. Opening the app on his watch he looked at his balance and saw that six grand had been deposited into his account.

Ash let out a rather embarrassing noise as he looked up at Surge only to see a smirk on his face. Rather than get mad and refuse, since he did agree to whatever the man wanted to give him, he sat there in silence as he mentally burned a hole through his head. He would get the man back tomorrow by beating him down on the field.

"Alright!" Surge boomed as he turned his computer screen off, "It's late and time for tiny kids and slightly bigger kids to get to bed!" The larger man ignored the glare he got from that statement as he got up. Ash was quickly ushered out of the room before being led out of the building.

The goodbyes were quick and somewhat quiet since Leon had fallen asleep after demanding for his Uncle to pick him up. Pikachu, ruffled after the spontaneous grooming session, let out a small yawn as if to tell Ash to hurry and go to the Center so they could go to sleep. Letting out a soft chuckle Ash walked the quiet cobbled streets almost reveling in how quiet the town was despite its size. He glanced around the town once he had spotted the Center and in the distance he could see the large ship Leon had said his parents were working on.

The sight of the large ship made him stop and take it in. It was larger than any ship he had ever seen. The moonlight glimmered off of its metal body making it look more mystical than it should have been. He didn't know how long he stood there just staring at the ship; it was as if his body had been taken over once again.

He was more aware of what his body was doing this time than he was last time. He could feel his lungs taking in air before letting it out as well as his legs beginning to moving the opposite direction of the Center. He felt heavy and light at the same time.

His body just kept going and going until he reached a rather secluded part of the beach. It looked untouched as he entered the small area and small waves were splashing up onto the sand creating a rather peaceful sound to his ears. Slowly feeling came back to his body and he was able to move himself without the feeling of being possessed.

Ash shook his head before looking around as he wondered why he was led here. He didn't see anything on the sand or in the water, but when he turned towards the trees that hid this part of the beach he saw why he was led there. The figure was humanoid, but obvious was human thanks to the cat like features and the long purple tail.

Slowly walking closer Ash saw the injuries on the pokémon. There was one wound in particular that Ash was a bit worried about. It went from shoulder to side and slightly wrapped around its side and from what he could see it was bleeding a bit sluggishly, but had once bleed quite a bit. He gestured for Pikachu to get off of his shoulder and onto the ground before taking his bag off.

Quietly he sat his bag down beside the creature before he knelt and opened it to grab his healing items. He chose to use his strongest healing item as well as a few berries he could crush up to place in its mouth if it didn't wake up. Looking over the largest wound Ash couldn't see any debris in it which was a good thing since all he needed to do was spray the potion on it. He uncapped the potion and mentally counted to three in his head before pressing down onto the trigger.

Instantly the creatures' eyes opened up and it moved quickly as it let out a physic type move blasting Ash back. Letting out a loud yelp Ash came to a stop half buried in the sand. Wincing a bit from the pain Ash slowly sat up and pressed a hand to his back before looking over a the creature.

He could see that it was panting a bit hard as it pressed a three toed paw to its chest. It had closed a small bit where Ash had managed to get the potion sprayed onto it.

" _Who are you human and what were you doing to me?!"_

The deep male voice in his head was unexpected and caused Ash to flinch a bit. He looked up and met purple feline like eyes that were filled with anger and cautiousness. "My name is Ash," the teen said softly as he gestured to the potion still in his hand, "I was brought here by something and I saw you hurt. All I was doing was healing you."

He saw the purple eyes narrow slightly before he felt something poking at him mentally. He wasn't given much warning than that before what he knew were his memories began to flash before his eyes like he was watching a movie in fast forward. Whatever the creature did only lasted a few moments before his vision was just filled with the creature before him.

" _You're an Aura user."_

Ash looked up to see a much calmer pokémon in front of him. The feline like pokémon changed his position a few times until it was sitting down once again and was leaning against a tree. Ash assumed its injury was bothering it quite a bit. "Yes," he said as he sat back on his knees, "Though I am only in training."

He heard a small humming sound come from the creature as Pikachu scrambled over towards him and went back up on his shoulder where he could best defend his trainer at a moments notice. Ash guessed that the creature in front of him had kept Pikachu back with his physic abilities.

" _You have saved others before me?"_

Ash looked over and nodded as he replied, "Yes. A Ralts and a Zorua. Zorua was kidnapped by the last person he was with, who didn't care about him, from a facility that did not so nice things to him and Ralts was a rescue from a pokémon mill."

" _Release them."_

The male voice had taken a softer kind of tone to it as it spoke in his head. He nodded and slowly pulled two of the balls from his belt, and with one in each hand he released his two newest family members. Zorua shook out his fur a small bit before noticing the larger pokémon before it and started snarling and growling at it while Ralts ran towards Ash and pressed herself against him.

Ash carefully picked her up and held her close as he felt her shake and whispered softly to her to try and calm her down. He whistled in a low tone to Zorua to make him stop his growling. The small fox backed up just enough to feel Ashs' knee with his back paw and while he did stop his snarling he didn't stand down from his defensive stance. No one would harm his trainer.

Silence reigned the clearing for a moment as the large creature looked down at them that was until Zorua stomp his foot down and let out a yipping bark before settling down onto his stomach. Ash guessed that the creature was talking to the two of them.

" _I want to stay with Father!"_

The bell chime like voice caught him off guard and when he looked down at Ralts, the only explanation he could think of for the feminine voice, he saw tears welling up in her eyes. He held her a bit tighter as he small nub like hands were lain on his arm. He cast a glance at the creature and saw that its eyes had obtained a curious gleam to them before it let out a rather elegant type of snort.

" _You're little one is very strong with psychic ability. Train her well and no one will be able to tear her down,"_ the creature said as it placed a paw on its wound once again, " _if you wouldn't mind healing me the rest of the way?"_

Ash nodded and placed Ralts down beside Zorua and told Pikachu to stay with them. Picking up the potion he had dropped when he released Zorua and Ralts he cautiously walked over to the creature and knelt beside it once again. "This'll sting," Ash warned before pressing the trigger again to release the healing solution.

He took note that the creature made no indication that it hurt as he emptied the bottle. "I don't know if you're internally injured, but I have a few berries if you would like them," Ash commented as he put the empty bottle in his bag to throw away later.

" _Not needed, but thank you human,"_ the creature said as it looked down at it looked down at its healed chest.

"Can I have your name?" the teen asked softly, "I've been calling you creature in my head."

The creature looked at the human curiously for a moment before replying, " _You may call me Mewtwo."_

"I'm pleased to meet you Mewtwo," Ash said as he gave the creature a smile, "Are you going to be alright now? Getting to wherever you are going I mean."

Mewtwo merely nodded its head once before it stood up. As Ash got to his feet he noticed that Mewtwo towered over him by quite a bit almost like Paul, but he was sure Mewtwo was still taller than the purple haired Sinnoh native. Mewtwo continued to stare at the child in front of it and quickly made up its mind.

" _I do have a request."_

Ash, who had moved to return Ralts and Zorua then grab his bag, looked over at Mewtwo curiously, "What is it?" he asked as he straightened up from his bowed over stance he had taken to grab his bag.

" _Capture me."_


	15. Chapter 15

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> What if Ash was more knowledgeable about Pokémon and the world around him before starting his journey? What if he got an opportunity like no other an decided to take it? Well here's to a different start with our Ash! Slash! Comashipping!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is cross posted to my Fanfiction site under the same name as it is on here. A few things before you begin reading. Ash is older at the start of his journey than in cannon. He is 16 years of age. Ash will be a bottom in his relationships. He will also capture pokemon he had not during the cannon episodes. He will know or be taught how to use Aura since I feel like they really failed in using it to its potential in the episodes. If there are anymore details I'll be sure to address them as they come up.
> 
> Main Pairing: AshxPaul
> 
> Side pairing: AshxGary (One sided on Gary's part)
> 
> Rating: M (to be safe)
> 
> Disclaimer: I do not own pokemon it belongs to Game Freak, Nintendo, Creatures, The Pokemon Company, etc, nor do I write this for profit. This is for entertainment use only.
> 
> Enjoy! And don't forget to leave a review!
> 
> I do want to thank everyone who has left a review so far!
> 
> A/N: THIS IS PART 7 OF A MASSIVE UPDATE! (7/9)

Wide red amber whiskey eyes widened as he heard what the powerful pokémon in front of him had requested of him.

"W-What?" he choked out as his pokémon looked at him in concern. The trio obviously had not heard what Mewtwo had said.

" _Capture me,"_ came the amused repeat of the shocking sentence, " _You are one of the more purest of souls I have come across after I left captivity. I do not wish to fear for my safety and from what I have gathered from various pokémon is that the safest I will ever be is within the ball like vessels known as a pokéball."_

Ash bit his lip softly as he looked over the newly healed Mewtwo. The creature in front of him was obviously either a Legendary or even a Mythical. He had never heard of such a pokémon and the only closest creature he could think of that was even close to Mewtwo was Mew. A brief thought of wonder if Mewtwo was an evolution of Mew that hadn't been discovered yet before he shook his head. There was no way Mewtwo was an evolution of Mew.

"O-Okay," Ash stuttered as he made up his mind. All Mewtwo was asking of him was a safe place. If he could provide it, he would give it. Digging into his bag he grabbed a pokéball, only slightly saddened that he couldn't give the creature a unique ball, but in the end he knew to keep Mewtwo safe like he wanted he didn't need to give him a ball that only caught the attention of others.

Lifting the ball up towards the towering Mewtwo he only had to wait a few moments before a three fingered paw lifted up and pressed against the button on the center of the ball. He watched as a red beam of light sucked Mewtwo in and he held the ball close as he shook in his hand. He gave the ball a small smile as it fell still just a moment later with a small ding!

Taking a deep breath he released Mewtwo.

Once bright purple eyes opened Mewtwo spoke to the human teen, " _I thank you, Ash. I am now safer than I was before."_

"You're welcome Mewtwo," Ash replied as he gripped the ball tightly as if he were afraid he would lose it, "What are you going to do now?"

The creature before him looked him over before settling for looking him in the eye, " _I believe I will explore around the world. There is much to learn and see."_

Ash nodded and took a deep breath before saying, "Well, you always have a home with me. If you are hurt or if you just want a bit of rest you can find me! I'll mostly be here in Kanto for now, but you never know what the future holds."

Mewtwo gave him a semblance of a kind look before replying, " _If you are in need of any assistance, be it you or for one of the ones you call family, you need to only think of my name and I'll be there. I'll keep you safe, just as you are keeping me safe."_

"I will," Ash promised as he gave the creature a nod. He was only a bit sad that Mewtwo wouldn't be traveling with him, but he knew the need to go out and explore. He supposed that after Mewtwo had his fill of looking around he would join them as they made their own way around the world.

They bade each other goodnight before Mewtwo disappeared in what Ash thought was a teleport. He quickly gathered his trio of pokémon before making his way back to the Center. His watch had told him that it was well past midnight. Letting out a small yawn he set out in a jog so it wasn't later in the night that he would get to the Center.

Seeing the building close in the distance after leaving the beach he picked up his speed and managed to get to the building in five minutes. He quickly checked in at the front desk by a too wide awake for the time Nurse Joy before walking up the steps to the upper floors where the rooms were. He was lucky to get a room close to the stairs.

A soft beep was the only indication that the door had been unlocked before he twisted the knob and walked into the room. It was a regular room. A large bed, a dresser with a tv mounted to the wall above it, an attached bathroom, and two side tables by the bed as well as a table by the window were one could sit and eat or do work.

Ash was quick to set his bag down and release his pokémon. The only one not sleepy was Sandile. If anything the reptile was a bit irritated if the twitching tail and grumpy look on his face was anything. "Sandile?" Ash asked softly as he kicked his shoes off before his pants joined them on the floor, "Are you okay?"

The croc hissed catching the attention of Ralts. The tiny shiny looked between the croc and her Father before walking over. Ash knelt beside the croc and laid a hand on his back. While the croc was irritated he wasn't about to turn and bit his human trainer. He was better than to give into his irritations.

" _Evolving,"_ came the small girly voice. It sounded so soft in his head that Ash was caught off guard as he was giving Sandile all of his attention.

"What did you say, Ralts?" Ash asked softly.

" _Sandile… Evolve,"_ the words came slowly as if his little girl was just getting use to speaking with her psychic powers. " _Irritated."_

His eyes widened as he looked down at the croc. He could see in the moonlight that filtered through the window how much Sandile was shedding and how long his snout had gotten. Ash supposed that he hadn't paid much attention while Sandile trained, having been more worried over the new additions as well as Charmanders' training, that he hadn't seen the beginnings of Sandiles' evolution.

Ash gave the croc a small proud smile as he said how proud he was to the croc that all of his hard work was paying off. He just knew that the croc could very possibly evolve during the gym battle later. He moved until he was laying down on the floor next the croc. As much as he wanted to lay down on the soft bed one of his family members needed him much more right now than he needed some comfort.

He whispered softly to the croc as he ran his hand down his back not only causing the croc to fall asleep, but himself as well. He didn't feel it as Ralts made herself comfortable by his head as well as his other pokémon that laid around and on top of him to keep him warm.

* * *

The morning came quickly and Ash was amazed at the long line in front of the gym. Trainer after trainer lined themselves up almost stretching to the doors of the Center. He almost felt bad as he made his way to the front doors of the gym since he was promised the first battle of the day and here it was just passed eight. He was sure quite a few trainers could have come and gone before he had gotten there.

He heard trainers grumbling as he came closer to the gym. As he neared the building he heard yelling. "What do you mean we can't go in!? Do you not see how many people are here to fight?!" a female voice yelled.

"And I told ya," another female piped up, "Ya ain't getting in. First battle was promised to another trainer and none of y'all are going in until after he battles."

Ash cleared his throat as he got closer, "I'm here for my battle," he said as he lifted his hand in a wave.

"Name?" the female in front of the doors asked, ignoring the other female before her getting more angry.

"Ash Ketchum," he answered before he was waved inside and as he walked into the empty gym he heard the trainers outside getting louder. He let out a heavy sigh as he continued inside. He saw a couple more gym trainers training their pokémon as he walked into the battling area.

He spotted Surge and tiny Leon with Raichu by the office and he waved causing attention to be brought to himself. "Alright! Everyone to the stands, the first trainer is here for a battle," Surge boomed as he picked Leon up and placed him on one of the stands. The tiny tot was joined by the same lion-like creature from yesterday.

Quickly the trainers and their pokémon were evacuated from the ground and Ash quickly made his way to the center of the room where Surge stood. "Two on two? No subs and no items?" Surge asked as he crossed his arms over his chest causing his biceps to bulge.

Ash nodded, "Is it alright if I let a pokémon out to observe the battle? He's a baby and the only official battle he's seen was in Cerulean."

"Sure," Surge said as he walked to his spot on the ground before Ash did the same. As the referee announced the battle he let out Charmander and knelt to speak with him softly. He ignored the rather loud whispers as the trainers caught sight of Charmander as he stood up and looked over at Surge.

"Challenger to release first!"

Ash nodded and grabbed Sandiles' ball. He had decided to use him and Pikachu, who had joined Charmander on the ground, for this gym battle.

"To battle!" Ash called out as he released the irritated Sandile. The croc let out an angry hiss as he whipped his tail side to side. On the other side Surge let out a rather large Pikachu and let out sparks from its cheek pouches.

"Dig Sandile!" Ash said as he saw that Surge wasn't going to do anything. The croc did as ordered and quickly dove into a space he felt better in than out in the open. He couldn't hear his trainer in this area but he knew that he needed to take out the Pikachu on the other side of the field.

"Thunderbolt into the hole!"

"Keep moving! Don't stand there and let it get you!" Surge said as he saw the croc dig into the ground.

Ash smirked as he stood there. Sandile was well used to getting shocked as he trained with Pikachu as well as the odd trainer with an electric type. Ash knew the croc could take the hit and keep going for a while. He stayed silent as the Pikachu let loose the electricity it had in its pouches.

Dust exploded from the ground as the bolt of electricity met it. It took a few moments as the dust settled only to show the ground a bit messed up and nothing else. Seconds went by as both the referee and gym leader waited to see if Sandile was knocked out as the croc hadn't done anything after the blast, the Surges' Pikachu came to a halt. Ash though knew otherwise.

"Sandi-" the referee said about to announce that Sandile had been defeated after a few more silent and tense moments, but was cut off as the sand colored croc burst out of the ground and clamped down onto the shocked Pikachu.

Ash could see bits of electricity flowing over the rough scales and knew Sandile had been shocked enough to be paralyzed for a few moments before the croc had attacked. "Fire Fang!" Ash called out as Sandile whipped the Pikachu back and forth. His own Pikachu winced as the mouse saw bits of blood drip from where sharp teeth had pierced skin.

"Iron Tail!" Surge called out just as Sandiles' fangs sparked into a flame causing the mouse to let out a squeal. Not only did the flames singe and burn the mouse a bit; it cauterized the bite wounds to keep the mouse from bleeding out.

Sandile let out a deep snarl as he felt an iron hard tail smack him in the face causing him to loose his grip on the mouse. He shook his head and let out a snort as the tail managed to hit just right to cause his nose to bleed. He banged his tail on the floor and unleashed an Assurance on the mouse only for it to be dodged.

That only made him more angry that he was at the beginning of the fight.

The croc didn't wait for his trainer to say anything as he delved into the ground once more. He could feel each step as the Pikachu ran around to make him confused, but he was faster underground than he was on the surface. Breaching the surface he once again got the annoying mouse in his teeth and he bit down hard.

He heard it cry out as he whipped his head back and forth like would have done his prey out in the wild before releasing it and quickly spun around to whack it with his tail sending it flying. He growled as he chased after the mouse only for his trainer to call him back from going after it.

As usual he listened to his trainer.

He quickly made his way back in front of his trainer as he kept his eye on the mouse. It seemed as though his tail had done the trick.

"Pikachu is unable to battle Sandile wins!" the referee announced once he saw that Pikachu wasn't getting back up. Ash watched Sandile for a moment and saw the red haze enter the dark eyes indicating that Moxie had taken hold of Sandile. For a moment he wondered if he should call the croc back, but decided to trust Sandile and left him on the field as Surge called out his Raichu.

The large evolution gave the croc a taunting laugh before letting out shock after shock of electricity as it ran around the croc. Ash watched as Sandile endured each blast as well as how much angrier the croc was getting. He saw the Raichu running past the croc as well as the shine at the end of its tail.

Ash opened his mouth to yell for Sandile, but just as his words were about to leave the croc shown brilliantly. Ash watched amazed as Sandiles' form grew larger and upright. His tail lengthened and his head was now more proportional to his body than it was before. A smile stretched across his lips as he took in Krokoroks' body.

Raichu, not fazed by Krokoroks' evolution, ran past once more, but was halted in his run as the croc caught him and tossed him. Krokorok looked at his smaller opponent and let out a roar as he bashed his tail into the ground causing it to crack under it.

Ash must admit that he was surprised at how well Krokorok took to his new form as the croc ran, rather quickly, at the Raichu and used Crunch. The teen knew though that the croc was tired and hurting after all the hits he had taken, so when the Raichu slammed its tail into Krokoroks' stomach with an Iron Tail causing the croc to release it and fall unconscious, he wasn't surprised.

"Krokorok is unable to battle! Raichu wins!" the referee announced.

"Pikachu to battle!" Ash announced before the referee could call on him to release his next pokémon. Ash knew his Pikachu was strong enough to finish off the Raichu. He wasn't worried.

"Thunderbolt!"

"Iron tail to the ground!"

Raichu was quick to let out the attack, but not quick enough to hit Pikachu before he dug his iron hard tail into the ground to act like a lightning rod. "Pikachu give it all you got! Thunderball!" Ash yelled out the combo move he had been teaching Pikachu. He watched as the yellow mouse used Agility to race up the wall of the gym while dodging bolts of electricity that Raichu sent after him. Once Pikachu was over the field he let himself drop. Ash knew this was the hardest part for Pikachu. The mouse had to gather as much electricity as he could in his body and focus on making it hard and condensed around him as he used Slam to prepare his body for the hard impact to the ground.

Ash watched as the mouse fully formed the condensed ball around himself halfway to the ground. All that was left was for the impact. Ash picked Charmander up and braced himself just as Pikachu made contact causing the ground the rumble and break like it would have if a pokémon used the move earthquake. He felt the electricity run up his legs causing them to tingle as he heard Surge scream at Raichu to dodge.

The larger mouse was closer to the point of impact than he was and was unfortunately unable to dodge.

Looking up Ash saw Pikachu wobbling his way out of the crater he made with his body as well as Raichu swaying side to side dazed. "Iron Tail!" Ash called out catching Pikachus' attention. The yellow mouse shook out his electrified fur before, much slower than before, ran towards his opponent and smacked the Raichu downward with his tail.

Silence reigned through the gym before a loud booming laugh came from Surge. "Let me tell you what kid," the older man said, "That was one of the best battles I have battled in; in a long time! Ref call it! Raichus' down for the count."

Ash let out a small chuckle as he gathered his wobbly Pikachu up in his arms after returning a rather excited Charmander back to his ball. Looking up as he heard footsteps he saw Surge standing before him with his sleeping Raichu in his arms.

"Congratulations kid," Surge said as the referee walked towards them with a box in his hands, "You've won the Thunder Badge."

Ash smiled and took the badge within the box as Surge continued speaking, "As well as this," Ash looked up to see a piece of paper in Surges' hand and when he took it he saw that it was not just a piece of paper, but a ticket.

"What's this for?" Ash asked as he looked it over for a moment.

"The League told me I needed to be a bit harder on the trainers getting their badges because of this," the gym leader said, "It's a ticket for a cruise ship called the S.S. Anne. It departs in two months from the dock here and it loads its passengers during the last week of June. They're holding a tournament on the ship that only the best of the best, and those that can afford a ticket, can participate in. There's only a select amount of people that can be on the ship for it and congratulations you're one of them."

Ash looked at the ticket with wide eyes. A tournament! On the S.S. Anne! He couldn't wait! He would be sure to keep it in a safe place.

"Now Ash," Surge said as he ushered the teen towards his office after handing a pokéball to one of the gym trainers, "Tell me about the move you just used on Raichu." Ash laughed as they were joined by Leon and happily began to explain the combo move.

He stayed there for a while before he had to leave. He had two months before he had to come back and he needed to get stronger. He decided his next step on his way to the center. Next up! Meeting up with Paul and onto Fuschia City!


	16. Chapter 16

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> What if Ash was more knowledgeable about Pokémon and the world around him before starting his journey? What if he got an opportunity like no other an decided to take it? Well here's to a different start with our Ash! Slash! Comashipping!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is cross posted to my Fanfiction site under the same name as it is on here. A few things before you begin reading. Ash is older at the start of his journey than in cannon. He is 16 years of age. Ash will be a bottom in his relationships. He will also capture pokemon he had not during the cannon episodes. He will know or be taught how to use Aura since I feel like they really failed in using it to its potential in the episodes. If there are anymore details I'll be sure to address them as they come up.
> 
> Main Pairing: AshxPaul
> 
> Side pairing: AshxGary (One sided on Gary's part)
> 
> Rating: M (to be safe)
> 
> Disclaimer: I do not own pokemon it belongs to Game Freak, Nintendo, Creatures, The Pokemon Company, etc, nor do I write this for profit. This is for entertainment use only.
> 
> Enjoy! And don't forget to leave a review!
> 
> I do want to thank everyone who has left a review so far!
> 
> A/N: THIS IS PART 8 OF A MASSIVE UPDATE! (8/9)

The two weeks it took Ash to get to Fuchsia was long and tiring. He felt as though he needed to sleep for a few days and bathe just to feel somewhat human, and he knew his pokémon were close to wanting a few days rest as well. There was even a time he had to call Oak to let him know of a rather strong and newly evolved Fearow in the area he was in that was rampaging and causing a lot of destruction.

He would have taken care of it himself if he thought his pokémon were strong enough to down the Fearow, but Fearow newly evolved were complete monsters and tend to have no restraint on those they battled. Seeing how strong the Fearow was he made up his mind. His pokémon needed to get stronger.

So during the two week travel Ash had them working hard in their training.

Charmander had quickly learned Metal Claw and was working on using a stronger version of Ember so the little reptile could learn Flamethrower. The little albinos' fire on his tail burned brightly and stronger letting Ash know he was getting close to evolving. The teen decided to reward Charmanders' hard work in letting him fight in a gym battle when they make it to Celadon.

Pikachu, having finally gotten his Thunderball move down, was working on perfecting it and the rest of his moves. Ash made sure to give him plenty of ketchup as a motivator.

Krokorok and Nidorino fought against each other every time they settled down for a break or for the night. Ash didn't want to make them stop. A little competition on the team was good. It challenged them to better themselves so they could get an upper hand on the other. Their score at the moment was Krokorok 19 to Nidorinos' 20.

Horsea was making leaps and bounds as his scales began to harden and his tail muscles became stronger. The little seahorse finally got the hang of Bubblebeam and gets a bit trigger happy when one pokémon of the team gets too close to the water line. Ash did take note that his head fins seemed to have gotten longer.

The two that made the most progress were Ralts and Zorua. The little fox of his seemed to have gotten over being scared at sudden movements and even enjoyed being outside of his ball while they walked. His fur, once dry, brittle, and dull, had become silky and shiny and he often begged to be brushed before going to sleep. Zorua especially loved it when his paws were pampered.

Ralts on the other hand, gained much needed weight, like Zorua had, and the wounds she had before were completely healed. She even began training with Nidorino, the more calm of his pokémon besides Pikachu, and was making very good headway. She had a bit of trouble with her Shadow Sneak, but excelled in using her Teleport. And gifting her with small treats of dried berries that she could chew on was no problem at all. He really spoiled her.

He was two days from Fuchsia when Mewtwo had decided to make an appearance. He had appeared just when Ash was getting ready to settle in for the night and asked for some rest in his ball. Ash had told him that he didn't need to ask and promptly presented the ball after asking Mewtwo if he wanted any food, which had been denied.

He still had Mewtwo in the ball since the creature hadn't let him know when he wanted out. Ash supposed that Mewtwo would let him know when he wanted to leave so now he let Mewtwo be.

Upon entering the city Ash couldn't help but gaze upon the buildings. It was like he had been sent back in time just by entering the city. The buildings looked old, but well kept and from where he stood he could almost see everything about the city. It wasn't large, but from what he knew the Safari Zone makes up for how tiny the city actually was.

He planned on heading into the zone after meeting up with Paul.

Speaking of the tall purple haired Sinnoh native Ash hurried to the Center where they decided to meet. Ash wasn't going to lie. He was nervous to meet him again. He had thought about Paul for a while now, since the man decided to stay in the hospital with him really, and he couldn't stop his heart from skipping a beat every time the man sent him a text.

He spoke about what he was feeling with his mother. She came to the conclusion that Ash was getting his first crush! Needless to say Ash was beet red after getting off the call with his mother. He didn't need that 'Talk' again thank you very much. Once from old man Oak was enough.

As he entered the lobby of the Center he looked around and easily spotted Paul. He lounged on the couch beside a yellow and black creature he hadn't seen before. It was small and had two long prongs on its head with a black lightning bolt on its belly. Ash walked closer to the two making sure to keep his eyes on the unknown pokémon since he didn't know how it would react to him getting closer to its trainer.

"Hey," Ash said softly in greeting as he stopped about two feet away.

Paul looked up before getting off the couch and greeted the smaller teen, "Hey, what's up?"

Ash bit the inside of his cheek for a moment as he tried to not react to Pauls' deep voice. "Nothing much," Ash said calmly, "Just been training and stuff. How about you?"

"Same," Paul said as he stretched, "Do your pokémon or yourself need any rest? You said you've been on the road for the last two weeks in your texts."

Ash sent him a small smile before admitting, "Honestly, yeah. I would really like some rest and I'm sure my pokémon would agree. The last time we got any good rest was when we had to rest in a cave to get away from a storm a week ago. I could also use a bath."

"I'd probably be the same if I did the same thing," Paul said as he nodded, "I'll go and train with my guys while you rest and we can do whatever tomorrow. Plan on fighting this gym?"

Ash shook his head as he gestured for Paul to follow him as he went to the front desk, "I know I'm not strong enough to fight Koga," he said before kindly asking for a room from Nurse Joy, "I might try after the S.S. Anne returns. I managed to beat Surge and got a ticket."

"Same," Paul said after Ash finished with the nurse. He followed the smaller teen and couldn't help himself as he looked down and saw a perky ass hidden by Ashs' jeans.

"I do want to go to the Safari Zone," Ash said as he scanned the card he had gotten on the card reader for the room, "You can come in for a moment if you want. I'm just gonna bathe my pokémon and get them to Nurse Joy to look over before showering and taking a nap."

"I should probably get my guys out to train. If you want we can go to the zone tomorrow?" Paul asked before saying, "I've asked the owner of the zone about what pokémon they got around in the zone and I gotta say I'm pretty interested in a couple. Though you can't battle them, which I understand, but it sucks."

"Oh?" Ash asked as he carefully took his egg out of his bag and placed it on his bed in a nest of the pillows for the moment, "What kind of pokémon are you looking for?"

"Boaba, the owner, said that they see a lot of migrating pokémon about this time of the year," Paul replied as he looked at the egg for a moment before turning to look at Ash, "They also have quite a few resident pokémon that are rare, like Dratini, Eevee, Scyther, Abra, and a few others. I want to see if I can't find a psychic to help round out my team."

Ash hummed softly as he thought over different psychic types. Thankfully he had his little girl so he didn't have to think about getting a psychic. "What other pokémon do you have?" he asked as he looked down at the small yellow creature by Pauls' side.

"I've got Grotle, Haunter, Elekid here, Lairon, and Sneasel on me," Paul said, "and I got Magmar, Ursaring, Snorunt, and Honchkrow at my brothers' place."

Ash bit his lip softly, "A Drowzee or an Abra," he said, "Those are the only ones I can think of that are native here in Kanto, but you might look at other Regions too."

Paul nodded before telling him that he was going to get so Ash could rest and wash up. Now alone Ash shrugged off his pants with his socks and shirt leaving him in only boxers. He couldn't stand the scratchy feeling of them any longer and vowed to do laundry while he was there.

"Alright! Bath time!" he announced as he released his pokémon. Zorua barked up, being the vain spoiled kit he was, he wanted his bath first. Picking up the kit he walked to the bathroom and set him down on the mat. Looking under the sink he grabbed the bottles of pokémon shampoo and a few towels from the linen closet before placing them by the tub.

He sent a smile down at Zorua as he turned the water on and waited until it was nice and warm before putting the plug in it. "Okay Zorua," Ash said as he grabbed the bottles and let Zorua smell them, "Mint, Apple, Berry, or Vanilla?"

Zorua bapped the one he wanted with his paw and was soon being washed with the comforting scent of vanilla. Soon enough all of his pokémon were washed, dried, and groomed and ready for bed. He took his time as he showered, making sure to thoroughly clean every inch of him, before putting on some comfortable clothes to leave the room in.

He smiled softly as he looked over at the bed after gathering his dirty laundry including his shoes, he had his hiking boots in his bag he could wear the next day. Pikachu, Zorua, and Ralts were all curled up together around his egg. He couldn't help himself as he took a picture of them as well as a picture of Charmander, Krokorok, and Nidorino curled up together beside the bed. He also took a picture of Horsea, not wanting him left out of the adorable picture taking.

Ash was quick to use the laundry facilities to quickly clean and dry his clothes before taking them upstairs to put in his bag once more. His shoes though needed to stay out to fully dry which he put on the desk to keep them out of Charmanders' mouth.

Soon enough he was passed out curled up beside the tinier pokémon of the group.

* * *

When Ash woke up he checked the time only to see that it was just after six in the morning. He sighed softly and let his head fall back onto his pillows and turned his body a bit to get comfortable again. It was too early, and to be honest he was surprised that he was even awake at this time.

Letting out a small sigh he quietly got up and got dressed before grabbing his watch, dex, room card, and woke up Pikachu to let him know where he was going so the mouse could let the others know before they panic. Quietly walking out of the room Ash ventured down to the kitchens and grabbed some food that was quick to make and eat as well as a few things they could take with them. He was sure they would go to the PokéMart before they leave to stock up. He wasn't sure how long they would be in the zone, but he wanted to be prepared.

Now that he was wide awake he was getting a bit restless. He supposed that his body was just used to being on the road moving nonstop and now that he had stopped for some actual rest he was getting jittery and wanting to move.

That being said he went back to his room where his pokémon were starting to wake up. He quickly fed them and sent Paul a text that he was going to explore the city and that he would meet him in front of the zone whenever he wanted. He gathered everyone up before shouldering his bag and left the room once again to explore the new city he was in.

There wasn't much to see besides the old architecture, but it did keep Ash entertained for the couple of hours it took for Paul to get up and ready. "Ready to go?" Ash asked as Paul walked up the step to the zone where he had already been waiting for five minutes.

"Yeah," Paul said as he stretched, "Where the hell do you get all this energy?"

Ash shrugged, "Not a clue, but I've always been this way. It takes a while for me to run out," he said as they entered the building leading to the zone. This was the only building different than those of the rest of the city. It was made of brick and steel and the inside was decorated with plants and wood furniture that were made to look like trees.

Behind the counter were three people. Two dressed in a uniform that one would associate with a safari while the older man of the three was dressed in white pants and a button down brown shirt. "Mr. Baoba," Paul greeted with a small wave, "We'd like to enter the safari."

Baoba stroked his white beard as he looked at the two, "I would very much like to let out," he began as he crossed his arms over his, "but there's been a rather unruly pokémon in the safari. I can't let you enter until it's taken care of. I've had to take the others that were inside of the safari out of it for I feared for their safety."

Ash licked his lip softly. He couldn't just turn his back when someone needed help and if they couldn't get it then he would just have to.

"What kind of pokémon is it?" Ash asked as he looked up at the older man and silently cursed himself for being too short.

"Why do you want to know?" Baoba asked as he looked at the smaller teen.

"I'm an On the Field Researcher and Trainer for Professor Oak in Pallet Town," Ash said as he showed the man his ID in his dex showing that he was indeed one, "I can capture it. It's in the job description."

Ash saw Baobas' eyes narrow a bit before nodding. "It's a rather small pokémon, but it's caused so much damage to its surroundings and the pokémon in the zone. Someone must have sneaked it in and released it when they went in without us knowing about it. I even had to ask around to others about what kind of pokémon it was since I've never seen it before. The scientists over in Pewter called it a Tyrunt, a fossil pokémon, and they said we better be relieved it wasn't evolved," the old man explained as he brought up images of it to show to Ash.

"Where was it last seen?" Ash asked as he took a closer look at the creature. It looked like a dinosaur to him like the kind his teachers use to tell in school. Its body was covered in grayish brown scales with a small hump on its back. In the picture its belly and lower jaw were covered in lighter gray scales.

The head is large in proportion to its body and has a blunt snout with a ridge above the nostrils. Two teeth are visible on the picture in the lower jaw, while the upper jaw has two tooth-like spikes. On top of its head were two orange spikes and it had black scales around the lower edge of each eye. Around its neck is a spiky ruff of white, primitive looking feathers. It has tiny forelimbs with two white claws each. The hind legs are more developed and have rectangular, armor plating over the knees, three white claws on each foot, and a smaller, fourth digit lacking a claw off to the side. Its tail is short with an orange spike near the tip.

"It was last seen towards the middle of the safari," Baoba said as he let out a sigh, "That was two hours ago before the cameras were cut off."

Ash nodded and looked away from the pictures to Paul, "Stay here," Ash said and before Paul could protest he added, "I don't want you hurt and I actually have a license to be in there unlike you. Just stay here please. I don't want to worry about you getting hurt."

Paul sighed and nodded as he rubbed the back of his neck. He would let the smaller teen have it when he gets back.

"Okay," Ash said as he hitched his bag up higher, "You guys have a camera that does live feed? I could strap it on me so you guys don't have to sit here in silence and worry about what's going on. And an earpiece?"

Baoba nodded and once he was set up with the camera on his chest and an earpiece in his ear he entered the safari. He took a deep breath before setting a good pace of a jog towards the center of the zone. On his way he did call Oak to let him know what was going on and he was once again filled with pride as the old man praised him. Oak did wish him good luck and to let him know how it goes. He also said he would get the League to look over who has had a fossil revived within the last few months to narrow down the person who released it.

It took Ash quite a bit of time before he reached the middle of the area, but he finally made it before noon. He heard the earpiece in his ear crackle a bit before he heard Baobas' voice in his ear, "Okay Ash," the old man said, "I got your location on our maps and you're about a five minute walk to the last location it was seen."

Ash nodded and let them know he was going to head in that direction. As he went further in that direction he spotted just how much damage this Tyrunt caused. Downed trees and ripped up roots. Gouges in the dirt, and sadly Ash saw evidence of it feeding on the wildlife as he spotted blood pools and furs as well as bone here and there.

Ash kept alert as he neared its last known location and looked around slowly. He couldn't hear anything. The forest around him was completely silent. He stood in the middle of the ruined forestry and looked around. He could only hear his breathing and his rampaging heartbeat as he strained to hear anything else.

Just as he was about to move to another location he finally heard something. A twig snapping.

Ash turned around quickly only to see the Tyrunt about to charge at him with its mouth opened. "Graaaaaaahhh!" the Tyrunt roared as it charged at Ash. The teen was just able to dodge and he sent out Krokorok, Nodorino, and Pikachu. He hoped to use Nidorinos' poison to weaken the beast while Krokorok and Pikachu beat it down.

"Krokorok! Pikachu!" Ash yelled as he heard Baoba in his ear talking to the others, "Heavy hit with all you got! Wear it down for Nidorino!"

Pikachu was first to let out an attack, but once seeing that his electric wasn't going to do anything to it he settled to hit it with his Iron Tail while dodging it with Quick Attack and Agility. Krokorok let out his own roar in challenge as he met the Tyrunt snout to snout. His croc though was first in hitting it with his tail making it stumble.

"Nidorino," Ash said as he knelt beside his second pokémon, "Ready your Poison Sting and when there's an opening release it." His purple reptile nodded and extended his barbs. During his training his poison had become even more potent which Nidorino was very happy about.

"Pikachu!" Ash called out as he saw Tyrunt swing around and smack its tail into Krokorok, "Aim for its legs! Trip it up!" He saw the wounds Krokorok was getting and was a bit worried. They looked plenty deep, but Ash knew his croc could endure it.

Ash bit his lip as he saw his two pokémon getting tired trying to get the Tyrunt down and so he made a decision. Hopefully it wasn't a stupid one.

"Charmander! Keep away from it, but I need you to use your Ember to try and burn it. Can you do that?" Ash asked as he looked down as a determined Charmander. His scales shown bright in the sunlight. The smallest reptile nodded and set to task.

His Charmander danced in and out of openings using Ember each time. He even sneakily used Dragon Tail a few times to help Pikachu in tripping the Tyrunt up for Krokorok to use Crunch on it. Ash watched in anticipation as he waited for an opportunity to let Nidorino release his Poison Sting.

The opportunity came after Charmander managed to trip the Tyrunt and it took a moment to get up. "Now!" he signaled to Nidorino who let out a grunt and quite a few of dripping poisoned needles. Ash watched satisfied as the hypodermic needles pierced through scales.

He also took this opportunity to throw a ball in its direction. He held his breath as he watched the ball wobble once… twice…

"Fuck!" Ash cursed as the Tyrunt burst out of the ball causing it to break. It let out a loud roar before charging what seemed like the weakest of the pokémon, Charmander. Ash watched horrified as Tyrunts' thick tail struck his baby before he could have said or done anything.

"Charmander!"

The little albino was flung into the dense trees as Krokorok let out a roar and bit down harshly onto Tyrunts' tail and used all his strength to fling it the opposite direction Charmander was flung. Before Ash could even move to go get Charmander another loud roar sounded through the area. It was different from the roars Krokorok and Tyrunt let out.

Standing up from where he knelt Ash kept his gaze to where Charmander was. His heart beat once then twice and from within the dense trees came a large bright red stream of fire. Emerging from behind it was his baby, but just a bit bigger. "Charmeleon! Flamethrower!" Ash called out as a smile reached his face.

Letting out a snarl his Charmeleon released another torrent of flames that encased the Tyrunt. The Tyrunt let out a loud screech and stomped its feet a bit before falling over panting once the flames died down. Ash once again threw a ball and snagged the Tyrunt on the side.

He waited once more and felt relief as the ball let out a small ding as it completed its capture. Ash walked over and picked it up to put on his belt as he thanked his pokémon and returned them for well deserved rest.

"Ash," Baoba said in his earpiece, "Wait right there. I'm going to send one of my workers with an atv to get you."

"Alright," Ash said as he sat down to just take in what just happened. His Charmander evolved. He knew it was only a matter of time, but his baby evolved. He had felt so scared when Tyrunt hit Charmander since the little albino hadn't really had battling experience like that before. He really did think that he was going to find his baby dead from the hit since it was a really hard hit.

But his Charmander really showed him how strong he was.

He stood up as he heard the rumblings of a motor and hopped up onto it once the worker had stopped. The ride back was so much quicker than the jog he took to get to the center and all he could do when he got back was lean against Paul as Baoba thanked him. Once being assured they could enter the Safari the next day they left the building.

As much as he wanted to enjoy the rest of the day, now that Nurse Joy claimed that his pokémon were good despite the beating they got, he couldn't. One question ran through his mind that he never thought he would have to think.

'Do I keep Tyrunt? Or give him away to be potentially put down?'


	17. Chapter 17

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> What if Ash was more knowledgeable about Pokémon and the world around him before starting his journey? What if he got an opportunity like no other an decided to take it? Well here's to a different start with our Ash! Slash! Comashipping!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> his is cross posted to my Fanfiction site under the same name as it is on here. A few things before you begin reading. Ash is older at the start of his journey than in cannon. He is 16 years of age. Ash will be a bottom in his relationships. He will also capture pokemon he had not during the cannon episodes. He will know or be taught how to use Aura since I feel like they really failed in using it to its potential in the episodes. If there are anymore details I'll be sure to address them as they come up.
> 
> Main Pairing: AshxPaul
> 
> Side pairing: AshxGary (One sided on Gary's part)
> 
> Rating: M (to be safe)
> 
> Disclaimer: I do not own pokemon it belongs to Game Freak, Nintendo, Creatures, The Pokemon Company, etc, nor do I write this for profit. This is for entertainment use only.
> 
> Enjoy! And don't forget to leave a review!
> 
> I do want to thank everyone who has left a review so far!
> 
> A/N: THIS IS PART 9 OF A MASSIVE UPDATE! (9/9)

Ash admired the larger form of his baby. Well defined musculature under a layer of hardened white scales. His claws and tail had lengthened and a horn-like feature grew from the top of his head. His teeth were as sharp as ever and his tail flame was still going strong.

All in all his Charmeleon was a perfect example of his species.

After the whole Tyrunt fiasco Ash and Paul had gotten something to eat before going to train for the rest of the day. Well, more like Paul and his other pokémon were going to train. Pikachu, Charmeleon, and Krokorok needed some time to rest.

He also needed the time they were training to think about Tyrunt. As he looked over the pokédex entry the more he was unsure of keeping it.

_Tyrunt #696_

_The Royal Heir Pokémon_

_This pokémon was restored from its fossil state and is rumored to have lived over 100 million years ago. Tyrunt has the jaw strength to chew up an automobile and if it finds something it doesn't like, Tyrunt throws a tantrum. Tyrunt are known to be selfish and likes to be pampered. This pokémon tends to harm those around them, but it is unknown if it is on purpose or by accident. Male Tyrunt, and their evolution, Tyrantrum, are more aggressive to their female counterparts. Not much else is known about this species._

_This pokémon is male and knows the moves, Roar, Ancient Power, Crunch, Dragon Claw, Ice Fang, and has the egg move Rock Throw. Its ability is Strong Jaw._

_Note: This pokémon is aggressive. All precautions are to be taken when handling this pokémon. Only for experienced handlers only._

Ash would be lying if he said he wasn't nervous about having Tyrunt, but after much consideration and a thorough conversation with his pokémon he made his decision.

He would keep Tyrunt.

Which brings him to this moment. He was standing in a clearing not far from the Center, but he was alone besides his pokémon as he had asked Paul for a moment to deal with Tyrunt. He had the pokéball in his hand and his pokémon surrounding him.

He took a deep breath before releasing the Tyrunt.

Ash watched as the Tyrunt looked around for a moment before spotting him. He saw a very well muscled body tensing as if the beast were about to charge, but he slowly moved to a kneeling position to show him that he wasn't dangerous. "Hello Tyrunt," Ash said softly as he licked his bottom lip, "My name is Ash and these are my pokémon."

The Tyrunt snorted and shook his head as he pawed the ground with his back paw. He heard the Tyrunt grunt as large eyes caught sight of the few that fought him the day before. He let a gravely roar, but before he charged at the human and his pets the human spoke again.

"We aren't here to fight you," Ash said calmly even at the aggression Tyrunt showed, "Will you become a part of our family?"

The Tyrunt let out a loud growl and snapped his jaws together a few times making a loud snapping sound as his teeth banged together.

" _Papa."_

Ash looked over at his Ralts and saw her just staring at Tyrunt. " _Sad,"_ she said softly, " _Lonely."_

The Tyrunt let out a crooning type call as he moved around the clearing now that he knew the human wasn't going to hurt him.

" _Herd gone,"_ Ralts said as her hands moved up to her chest only to rest just under her chin, " _Looking for mother."_

Ash bit his lip softly as he looked over at the crooning Tyrunt. He couldn't imagine being in Tyrunts' place. Restored millions of years in the future alone and without family. Ash moved closer to the pokémon his pokédex had deemed aggressive and gained the beasts attention. Tyrunt once again began growling, but Ash brought his hands up showing the Tyrunt that he wasn't going to hurt it.

"It's okay," Ash said softly, "I'm not going to hurt you. I just want to talk, okay?"

Ash saw that the Tyrunt was confused before he started explaining to him about what happened to him. How he had become a fossil so many years ago and was buried under the ground for a really long time before some people dug him up. When Ash explained to the Tyrunt that his mother wasn't alive any longer the Tyrunt let out a loud rumbling roar as it began to throw a tantrum like his kind is known to do.

Ash watched as the Tyrunt ran around and headbutt into trees and rocks as well as dug his claws into the ground. He watched as Tyrunt also slung his tail into trees and onto the ground. The tantrum lasted quite a while and Ash was surprised to see that the sun was starting its descent down to the horizon by the time Tyrunt was laying on the ground panting and banged up.

Ash slowly stood up from his kneeling position and carefully approached the downed pokémon. He carefully reached down and ran his hand over sweat and dirt covered scales along his back. The Tyrunt let out a whine as tears formed in his large black eyes.

"It's okay," Ash said softly, "I'm here. I'll take care of you."

The Tyrunt let out another whine as he wiggled his body a bit to lay his head on Ashs' lap. This human was kind and maybe just maybe he could find some solace with him.

Ash hummed softly as his other pokémon came closer to curl up around him and the grieving Tyrunt. He was glad he made this decision.

* * *

The two days passed since he caught Tyrunt and he and Paul were leaving Fuchsia City. Paul had enjoyed his time in the Safari and managed to capture a very determined and large Abra and even snagged a perfection driven diva of an Eevee while Ash refrained from capturing another pokémon since he had just gotten Tyrunt.

Speaking of which, his Tyrunt seemed to have imprinted on both him and Krokorok and deemed the two as his main caretakers. The almost three foot reptile had even shown his dissatisfaction of going back into his ball by trashing the room he had stayed in at the center. So here Ash was, walking with Paul out of the town and onto the long journey to Saffron, with Tyrunt in front of him and Pikachu on his shoulder.

"So how has he been?" Paul asked as he gestured to his Tyrunt that was trying to drag a branch of a tree that was too big for him to drag.

Ash sighed and shook his head. "So far it's been okay," he said as he got Tyrunt to stop before another tantrum could occur, "Well, besides the tantrum he had at the Center."

Paul let out a small chuckle before saying, "I'm surprised that you decided to keep him. If it were me I would have given him to a professor or the League and go on with my journey. Even I know I couldn't handle something like him."

The dark haired teen bit his lip softly. He had thought about doing that before he made his decision to keep Tyrunt. He knew, just from what he had seen and battled against, that Tyrunt could easily end him or his pokémon if he went into a rage. "I did think of that," Ash admitted softly to Paul, "But Tyrunt." He paused for a moment to collect his thoughts.

He stopped for a moment and turned to Paul to say, "Think about it like this. You're with your family. You're happy, healthy, and enjoying life, but suddenly something happened and it all ended. One moment you're there and the next you woke up millions of years later into the future. Alone. No family around. And what would you do just like any child would do. You throw a tantrum. You learn you got to be aggressive to anything around you because you're scared and alone and you don't know what's going to happen next and you don't know where your family is."

Paul remained silent as he listened to Ash rant. From how the teen spoke it was like he had been thinking about it for a while now, and instead of speaking up he decided to remain quiet and let Ash get it off his chest. He had to admit though that Ash was pretty damn cute as he ranted and raved about something he was passionate about.

Ash took a deep breath as he finished what he was saying. He cleared his throat as they continued on the path.

* * *

They continued walking, sleeping, training, and just getting to know each other during the two week journey it took to get to Saffron. There they stayed a couple of days to freshen themselves and their pokémon before continuing on to Celadon which took only a week to get to.

Needless to say, Ash was falling hard for Paul. He wasn't sure if Paul felt the same or if he was even gay, but at least Ash had him as a friend. Ash had learned that Paul had a brother in Sinnoh that raised and bred pokémon as well as learned that his brother, Reggie, was the one to raise him. He didn't question Paul on his parents which seemed like a good idea since the tenseness that Paul had in his shoulders had relaxed as they changed the topic.

It was during the time they had left for Saffron that Pauls' Elekid evolved into a pokémon he learned was called Electabuzz.

"So Paul," Ash asked as they neared Celadon, "Are you going to fight Erika or have you fought her already?"

"I've already fought her," Paul said as he cleared his throat, "Want tips?"

Ash shook his head as he said, "Nope! I want to fight her fair and square. Though I do already know she fights with grass types and her favorite pokémon is a Gloom."

Paul nodded and they continued their silent walking, that was only disrupted by Tyrunts' snarl-like growl. Looking up Ash saw Gary a bit in front of him talking to someone. "Oh great," Ash said as he let out a sigh and told Tyrunt to stop growling. The little reptile didn't really like other humans.

"Don't like him?" Paul asked as they got closer to Tyrunt who had come to a stop to wait for Ash. The little ancient reptile was a quick learner and Ash was a bit more strict with him since he knew how bad his tantrums could be if he weren't disciplined correctly. And so far what he had been doing worked wonders.

"Nope," Ash said as he cracked his neck in preparation of their meeting, "He's a childhood bully and hasn't really grown up or matured much since childhood. I'm his favorite target."

Paul nodded and stepped a bit closer to Ash if he needed a guard, though Paul could just leave it to Tyrunt.

"Well, well, well," a snide filled voice said as they got closer, "If it isn't Ashy boy!" Gary smirked as he looked at the shorter teen and crossed his arms over his chest.

"Hello Gary," Ash said as he stopped a few feet away. He gestured to Tyrunt to step behind him, which thankfully the little reptile did. Pikachu, ever present on his shoulder, perked up a bit as he heard the other teen his trainer hated.

"Care for a battle?" Gary asked, "Even though you're going to lose? I doubt your little reptile there could do much to my pokémon."

Ash took in a deep breath and let it out slowly. He really didn't need Tyrunt to see him get worked up. "You know what, sure," Ash said as he shrugged, "We haven't battled since we left Pallet."

"Good," Gary replied, "Three on three? No subs and no recovery or battle items? Winner is whoever has all three pokémon knocked out."

Ash nodded and stepped back with Tyrunt on his heels. He was undecided if Tyrunt would fight, but knowing the reptile he would throw a tantrum if he didn't get to fight.

"So Ashy boy," Gary piped up from where he was at and when Ash looked at him he saw that Gary was pointing at Tyrunt, "What is that?"

Ash looked down and was met with black eyes and a wagging tail, "This is Tyrunt," Ash said as he looked back up, "He's a recent capture."

Gary let out a hum before letting his Wartortle out. The evolution was much larger than its previous form of Squirtle. From what Ash remembered how Squirtle looked like, this creature's blubber like skin changed to a fine powder blue color while it gained feathered ears and its tail grew longer.

He watched for a moment as the Wartortle punched one of his paws into his other paw before he let Pikachu loose. If he knew Gary like he used to when they were younger the brunette would put all of his training into his starter while the other pokémon on him would suffer. As much as he hated what Gary does to his pokémon, it's not considered abuse or neglect, so he can't report him.

"Rapid Spin!"

Garys' voice cut him out of his thoughts and he looked over just in time to see the large turtle retreat into its shell and begin to spin quickly. "Should have known you would use a pokémon that has the type advantage over Wartortle, but it won't work! My pokémon is so much stronger than your pitiful little mouse!" Gary boasted as Wartortle shot off from his position to Pikachus' who simply dodged.

His mouse knew better than to get mad over simple words. Pikachu retaliated the Rapid Spin by smacking the spinning shell with his Iron Tail sending it back towards Gary. As the turtle landed harshly against the ground Pikachu let out a small, but strong burst of Thunderbolt and illuminated their shaded trail.

"Pikachu get in close with Quick Attack and blast Wartortle with Electro Ball," Ash said as he saw the turtle wobbling out of the crater it had made with its landing. Ash could see small sparks dancing across powder blue skin and he knew that there was a small window for Pikachu to attack and quickly end the fight.

With a small growl his mouse followed the order and effectively finished the battle without much fanfare. Pikachu retreated once he was done and stood by Ash once again as he waited for his next opponent. Instead of letting Pikachu continue fighting, since he knew Pikachu could easily end all of the three opponents, he recalled him as he wanted to let the others on the team fight.

"To battle!" Ash called out just as Gary let his next pokémon out. Krokorok stood tall against his opponent, which was a small puppy like pokémon. Ash had no doubts that Garys' Growlithe was a product of Oaks' Arcanine mating with another pokémon.

The puppy pokémon let out a few sharp barks as he tried to intimidate his opponent, but was unable to do so as his croc let out his own growl and whipped his tail into the ground effectively scaring the small pup. "What the hell," he heard Gary mumble after Krokorok finished his display.

Smirking Ash called out his first attack which his croc was quick to follow. After Krokorok evolved he had his croc work on achieving short bursts of speed to get him to his opponent quicker and to dodge attacks as well since his form was much larger than his Sandile form. It took a while, but Krokorok was determined to get stronger and faster.

Ash watched as the two pokémon exchanged blows for a moment. He had to admit the Growlithe was a fast and strong little puppy, but it wasn't fast enough if all the tail whips it had been hit with says anything. "Krokorok, use Crunch!" Ash called out as the Growlithe jumped up high for a move.

The large croc let out a snarl and quickly caught the puppy in his mouth and shook his head quickly making the puppy dizzy and let out small yelps as sharp teeth dug into its body. Krokorok flung the tiny pup away towards a tree, but instead of hitting the tree it fell short of it and rolled into its roots.

Ash did have to commend the Growlithe as it shakily stood up. Most pokémon couldn't stand after being caught in Krokoroks' teeth. The teen narrowed his eyes as the puppy began to glow.

"Fuck," Ash whispered to himself. He covered his eyes as the glowing became brighter before it died down leaving a much larger dog form. The Arcanine let out a loud gravely bark before it rushed forward towards his croc in a not so surprising burst of speed.

Krokorok wasn't afraid. If anything he was excited. His opponent evolved into a stronger opponent. A quick tail whip, making the larger dog stumble, was followed by a Crunch and move that Ash didn't even know that Krokorok had learned, Foul Play.

The combination of the moves and the previous injuries the Arcanine had from before its evolution caused the large dog to collapse into a heaving unconscious pile, but Krokorok wasn't far behind since the croc didn't have the best endurance.

Ash could see that Gary was getting mad over the fact that he had lost twice so far. He could almost hear the way the auburn haired teen ground his teeth if the way his tense jaw said anything.

"Final pokémon Gary," Ash called out as he recalled a hardly tired croc, "Are you sure you want to continue? Or do you want to call it my win here?"

He held in his laughter as he saw Gary glare at him, "No way!" the other teen said as he grabbed another ball, "Let's go!"

"Tyrunt," Ash said, making the ancient reptile look up shocked that the human said his name, "To battle!"

Tyrunt let out a purring growl as he happily ran to the field as he had seen his fellow herd members do. His tail wagged back and forth, like an over excited puppy, as he waited for his opponent. He wanted to win to make his human proud.

Ash smiled as he saw how excited Tyrunt was. While he would have used Zorua, or even Ralts, the two were still recovering from their ordeal from the mill and the kidnapping from a lab. The fights the two had with wild pokémon was different to the fights with pokémon who had actual training. Tyrunt though was healthy and strong.

The Tyrunts' opponent turned out to be a large Eevee. While Ash had seen the on tv and even seen Pauls' when he had captured his own Eevee, he hadn't seen one quite so large. The muscles were well defined underneath polished smooth fur and its teeth were sharp and shining as it snarled at Tyrunt, who only let out a snort.

"Tyrunt," Ash said softly, "Start off with Ancient Power."

Tyrunt let out another snort as his eyes began to glow and the ground around them shook as large chunks of rocks lifted into the air. He waited just a moment before flinging the rocks towards the Eevee and unluckily only managed to hit it with one of them as the fox like pokémon dodged the others.

Tyrunt didn't like that. The Eevee was supposed to get hit like his mother had told him was supposed to happen. The small reptile let out a loud snarl and whipped his tail down to the ground causing it to shake a small bit.

"Tyrunt calm down," Ash said as he saw that Tyrunt was about to go into a tantrum, "Run in a use Crunch."

Surprisingly the reptile listened and stopped what he was doing to listen to his human. His feet caused the ground to tremble and a loud thud to be heard as he ran, very quickly, to the large Eevee. His mouth was wide open revealing pearly white and sharp teeth ready to tear into flesh. Just as he closed his mouth his opponent dodged causing his jaws to snap closed with a loud cracking sound. He wasn't hurt though. His mother had taught him how to not get hurt.

He was mad though that the fox ran away; so he began a simple game of cat and mouse. He ran and snapped and ran some more as the Eevee dodged each attempt to get it in his jaws. The more he missed the angrier he got, but he listened to his human as the teen told him to calm down. After all, the human took him in and treated him like he was his own pup.

"Rock Throw," Ash yelled as the fight was going nowhere. He heard Gary yell his own command, but he didn't pay attention as he watched Tyrunt begin to throw large rock after large rock at the Eevee. He could tell that the fox like pokémon was getting tired after all that running around.

He watched as the Eevee got pelted by rock after rock as the tired Eevee failed to dodge the rocks all the way. "Tyrunt," Ash called out as he saw how much slower the Eevee had gotten, "Now's your chance! Use Crunch!"

Tyrunt let out a loud roar before he charged at the panting Eevee. He quickly gathered the Eevee in his mouth, but before he could shake his head like he had seen his surrogate father Krokorok do, the Eevee vanished.

Ash looked up and saw that Gary had recalled Eevee. Gary let out a 'tsk' before turning and walking away, but the teen couldn't help but say, "Smell ya later Ashyboy."

The darker haired teen just sighed as he shook his head. This was typical of Gary. Leaving before the fight even officially ended.

He just recalled Tyrunt into his ball even though he knew the reptile hated it, but he could see that Tyrunt was tired. He walked back over to a silent Paul and gave him a look that asked him not to ask. If he were to be honest he never really liked Gary. He had always bullied him and teased him. He only tried to be a friend to Gary because the other boy seemed to be lonely.

Letting out a deep sigh Ash started walking in the direction Gary went and he hoped that they didn't run into each other again.

Celadon was a busy city, but it didn't surprise Ash at all. Celadon was a tourist town after all.

There were two places in this city that Ash wanted to go to, the Gym, of course, and the department store. He had wanted to put the TM Pass he had, for being an OFRT, to use. He just needed to see what they had in stock.

"Okay here we are!" Ash said as he placed his bag on one of the beds in the room they had requested in the Center. When they got to the Center they found out that there was only one room left with two beds in it, but that wasn't a problem for them at least. So they took it.

"Are you going to enter the tournament that Nurse Joy told us about?" Paul asked as he placed his bag on the other bed. That was the reason for having no room in the Center. It was mostly taken up by trainers that were entering a tournament hosted by a local breeder.

"I don't think I will," Ash said as he glanced at the flyer Nurse Joy had given them and scanned the prizes, "Maybe, but I won't shoot for first place as tempting as it is. I already got an egg and an almost full team."

Paul let out a small hum as he toed off his shoe to get ready to shower.

"Besides," Ash continued, "I've got my hands full already getting Ralts and Zorua strong and healthy and keeping Tyrunt from destroying everything."

Speaking of, Ash walked over and pulled the curtain out of Tyrunts' mouth as the little reptile jerked back in a small game of tug of war. He really needed to get some hard chew toys for Tyrunt. The ancient creature had ended up losing a few teeth and while they were growing back quickly the small bit of pain the growing teeth caused made Tyrunt irritable.

"Want to go to the department store after our showers?" Ash asked as he dug his clothes out that needed to be washed as well as a clean set along with his hiking boots. His sports shoes needed to be replaced.

"Sure," Paul said as he made his way to the shower. They had decided on him going first on their way there.

As the older teen showered Ash pulled out his egg and gave it a once over. He was sure that the egg would have hatched by now since it had been over a month since he received it. He was a bit worried about it, but once speaking to Oak about it he felt a bit more relieved. Oak had told him that it was normal at times for eggs to wait longer than they should before they hatch and some eggs even needed to be in special conditions to hatch.

For Ash, he assumed that Riolu would hatch once he was able to use Aura to some degree. He had poured over the books he had gotten from his ancestor and from Guardian Redfern, but there was nothing on the hatching of the egg and if there were any special conditions it needed.

The band around the egg at least told him that the little Riolu inside was healthy and strong and that it wasn't distressed in any way. That at least gave him the most relief.

He just laid there curled up to his egg and just basked in the sounds of the running water from the shower and their pokémon playing. He watched as Pauls' Abra started teleporting around the room making the babies of the group laugh when he ended up in a weird position. His Nidorino and Pauls' Grotle were laying side by side sleeping while Krokorok was watching over the others of the group with Tyrunt following the large croc closely behind like a duckling.

"I hope you hatch soon," Ash whispered softly to the egg as he looked down at the dark colored egg, "Your family is eagerly waiting for you, but you take as much time as you need."

Ash smiled as he felt the egg give a little wiggle before falling still, but it wasn't the only thing wiggling. Ash looked over towards his bag and saw Mewtwos' ball slowly moving side to side in his belt and its button flashing red.


	18. Chapter 18

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> What if Ash was more knowledgeable about Pokémon and the world around him before starting his journey? What if he got an opportunity like no other an decided to take it? Well here's to a different start with our Ash! Slash! Comashipping!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is cross posted to my Fanfiction site under the same name as it is on here. A few things before you begin reading. Ash is older at the start of his journey than in cannon. He is 16 years of age. Ash will be a bottom in his relationships. He will also capture pokemon he had not during the cannon episodes. He will know or be taught how to use Aura since I feel like they really failed in using it to its potential in the episodes. If there are anymore details I'll be sure to address them as they come up.
> 
> Main Pairing: AshxPaul
> 
> Side pairing: AshxGary (One sided on Gary's part)
> 
> Rating: M (to be safe)
> 
> Disclaimer: I do not own pokemon it belongs to Game Freak, Nintendo, Creatures, The Pokemon Company, etc, nor do I write this for profit. This is for entertainment use only.
> 
> Enjoy! And don't forget to leave a review!
> 
> I do want to thank everyone who has left a review so far!

Ash sat up quickly and reached over to grab the ball. He shot a look at the closed door then at the other pokémon in the room. He bit his lip softly before shoving his feet in his shoes then grabbed his wallet and room key before yelling at Paul that he needed to go grab something at the store before leaving the room. As usual Pikachu hopped onto his shoulder before he left the room.

Ash hurried out of the door of the Center and made his way to the woods where he felt the safest releasing Mewtwo. Once he made sure there was no one around he released his companion.

"Mewtwo," Ash greeted with a smile and a nod, "Have a nice nap?"

Bright purple eyes, still a bit bleary from sleep, focused on him as Mewtwo spoke, " _Indeed. How long have I been out?"_

Ash hummed as he switched on his watch and pulled up a calendar. "A little over a month," Ash said as he looked up at the creature, "I was getting a bit worried that you slept that long, but I didn't want to disturb you and I've been traveling with another human the last two weeks."

Mewtwos' tail twitched a bit as the creature nodded and said, " _I am not surprised I slept that long. I used a great deal of my power just before coming to you."_

"Are you okay?" Ash asked in genuine concern. Mewtwo didn't look so beat up when he appeared for sleep.

Mewtwo merely nodded. " _The human that made me found me and tried to beat me down enough to capture me once again for his own gain,"_ the creature explained, " _I won against his pokémon and appeared before you."_

"As long as you're sure you're okay," Ash said as he gave Mewtwo a nod, "What are you going to do now?"

The creature stretched a bit moving its head side to side as if to stretch its neck muscles a bit. " _I have found an island that I have decided to make my own,"_ Mewtwo said softly, " _I was contemplating on asking a request of you and one of your pokémon."_

Ash furrowed his brows in confusion. A request? If he could grant it, if it was in his power, he would. "What is it?" Ash asked as Pikachu moved a bit on his shoulder.

" _I wish to train one of yours,"_ Mewtwo said bluntly, " _the fight with the humans that created me has shown me that I am not invincible like I have once thought. I need to get stronger and I would like to train one of your pokémon so if something did happen to me the world will still know of me and so that you and yours are safe. I know you can depend on the others of your family, but this will make me feel better."_

His eyes widened as he stared at the creature as it continued to speak. The only one on his team that he could think of that Mewtwo might even have the slightest want to teach is Ralts.

His little girl.

There was a possibility that he wouldn't see her for a while, wasn't there? And that she would be in a bit of danger just from being with Mewtwo, but wasn't himself also in danger from catching the creature?

But if he were to be honest with himself, this is an opportunity he couldn't just give up. He wanted what was best for his family and for his pokémon to be as strong as they could be so they could better protect themselves and those around them.

Ash took a deep breath and opened his mouth to answer. "Can I think about it?" he asked softly as a breeze flew through the trees they were surrounded by, "I want to ask Ralts as well and see if this is something she wants."

Mewtwo closed its amethyst colored eyes and gave Ash a nod. " _I'll return in a months time for your answer,"_ Mewtwo said before disappearing to what Ash assumed was his island.

Ash took another deep breath and walked out of the woods and toward the shop. He was glad it was open twenty-four-seven. He quickly gathered a few things before paying for them. He decided to put Mewtwos' request behind him for now and he would think about it again a bit later. He had a month to think about it after all.

The dark haired teen rushed up the stairs to their room after entering the Center. He really hoped that Tyrunt was good and didn't tear up the room without him being there. Thankfully, or not so thankfully, Paul was dressed when he entered the room.

"Hey," Ash greeted as he looked around only to be surprised, and relieved, that the room was still intact. In fact his Tyrunt was dozing at the bottom of his bed with Zorua curled up beside him.

"Hey," Paul said from where he was lounging on the bed, "Get everything you needed?"

Ash looked over at him and nodded. "Uh, yeah," he said, "I just remembered as I was looking over my clothes that I needed some more detergent to clean them. Then I remembered I was close to being out of body wash as well."

Paul let out a small hum and nodded before staying quiet as Ash prepared to get ready for his won shower. 'He's hiding something,' Paul thought to himself as he saw the tense figure of Ash walk into the bathroom.

Paul turned to Pikachu, who was getting ready for a nap while his trainer got clean, and said, "Keep and eye on him when I can't. I think he's getting caught up in something he doesn't need to be in."

Paul gave the small mouse an equally small smile as he let out a small chirping sound as he fell asleep.

Ash was sure to be quick to get cleaned up since he didn't want to leave Paul waiting in the room too long. He quickly got dressed and used the blow dryer in the room to dry his hair before he left the hot room. "Ready to go?" Ash asked as he slipped his shoes back on and grabbed his items.

"Yeah," Paul said as he got up from the bed.

Ash nodded and recalled his pokémon, except for Pikachu who had gotten on his shoulder again, before leaving the room to head towards the department store. He had a mental list of what he was going to get. His pokémon needed to be pampered a bit after all the training they have gone through.

Pikachu is getting some ketchup flavored treats and an electric ball to play and train with.

Krokorok is getting a TM along with Nidorino, Horsea, and Charmeleon as well as a chunk of his preferred meat.

Nidorino liked sour treats so he is getting something sour along with his TM.

Horsea is getting a special food blend that Ash is getting custom made with his favorite foods as well as a TM for him.

Charmeleon is getting a new fire blanket and a spicy flavored treat as well as a TM.

Zorua, almost fully healthy, is getting a toy of his choice and a sweet treat.

His little girl Ralts, also almost fully healthy, is getting a sweet treat and a soft blanket.

Tyrunt is getting his metal core toys and a bitter treat.

"What are you looking for in there?" Ash asked as they stepped in front of the store.

Paul turned towards him before looking forward as they entered the gigantic building. "Nothing in particular," he replied as they searched for a map of the building, "I'd kind of like to see their TMs and maybe some new shoes. Mine are falling apart."

Ash nodded as he looked over the map. "Here and here," Ash said as he pointed to two different locations on the map, "This one is the pokémon store where you can get anything pokémon related, and this one is a clothing store, but they have shoes there."

"Let's start with the shoes," Paul said, "It'll be quicker than the other store."

"Okay," Ash agreed and led the way towards the store. He glanced at the other stores along the way, but he wasn't interested enough to go in them. There were the usual stores one would see in a large department store/mall. A candle store, a sweets store, a game store, electronics store, antiques store, several clothing stores, and so on.

The trip to the shoe department was a quick one since Paul had known what he wanted in the first place. It just took a few minutes to find the brand he had wanted and then to find the size he needed. Ash had observed that the pair of shoes Paul had just gotten were the same ones he had on. He had to hold in his laughter when he saw that. He guessed that Paul really liked those shoes.

As they walked out of the shoe store, after paying of course, Ash decided to open his Xtransceiver and see if there was anything online about the tournament being hosted here. Once he found it he spoke out loud so Paul could hear it.

"There are two rules to the tournament. The first, no evolved pokémon or baby pokémon. The second rule, all the matches are two on two matches and substitutions are not allowed. Underneath that rule it also says no items are allowed as well," Ash said as they neared the store with all of the pokémon items in it.

"Sounds simple," Paul replied, "though I've never heard of a tournament where someone can't fight with an evolved pokémon."

Ash looked over towards him as he put his Xtransceiver away and explained, "It's pretty common here for tournaments to have rules like this. Breeders like to put up tournaments when they have abandoned eggs or if they've been sponsored to put one on by a company. This one just looks like the breeder is putting it on and it's not sponsored."

"Really?" Paul asked as they entered the store.

"Mhmm," Ash hummed, "They do this mostly to be able to find a good home for the egg. You can tell a lot about a person by how they treat their pokémon."

Paul nodded as they grabbed a basket each to put their items in before they split to get their items. Ash knew he needed it, maybe even a second one, with all of the items he was going to grab. He first went to the treat section and was almost overwhelmed with the selections he could choose from. Amazingly he actually found ketchup flavoured treats for Pikachu. He made sure to grab small bags so he could fit them in his backpack and not be overwhelmed with how heavy his bag was from everything he was going to buy.

His next stop was the toys. He grabbed the ones he knew he was going to get before he started searching around for Tyrunts' toys. He had found a few, but he didn't like how they felt and what they were made of. He must have been there for ten minutes just looking for the right chew toys before he found something he could be satisfied with in giving to his pokémon.

The next area he went to was the blanket section. He grabbed a larger fire blanket and a soft baby blue blanket he thought Ralts would like before he started for the counter where they held the TMs. On his way to the counter he passed the apparel section where one item caught his eye.

It was a deep purple colored bandanna.

It was a beautiful color and it reminded him of Mewtwos' eyes. He couldn't help himself as he grabbed it and placed it in his basket. Mewtwo after all was one of his pokémon and a member of his family. The man made creature would be spoiled along with the rest of his pokémon.

"Afternoon!" one of the girls behind the counter said as she greeted him, her name tag had the name Carry on it, "Did you find everything you needed today?"

"Afternoon," Ash greeted back with a small smile, "I did, but I would also like to purchase some TMs."

Carry nodded and told him to take his time to look at the TMs and when he found the TMs he wanted all he needed was to call for her and she would help. Ash nodded and turned from her to the cases and spotted the disks that held the TMs as well as a holder that could be used to transfer the information from the disks to the pokémon. Ash was happy to see that they were separated by elemental type and then were put in alphabetical order.

He gravitated towards the Ice TMs first to try and see if he could find a move that would cover the hole in his team. He studied them and their descriptions before deciding on Ice Beam. It would work as both a terrain changer and a long distance move that some of his pokémon really needed. He knew Nidorino could use it and so could Horsea. From there he scanned the other TMs since he already chose which one he really wanted.

From ice he went to fire, then grass, then normal, steel, and flying, before he made it to the fighting type TMs. As he had gone through the other TMs he really thought about his pokémon and what they needed. From there he made a vague list of moves for them to learn and it so happened that the next TM he was going to get was Brick Break. It would really help Krokorok in using his two arms. Nidorino, when he evolved, could get it too and Charmeleon as well.

After getting that one he quickly picked out Scaled for Horsea, Dark Pulse for Zorua, and Hypnosis for Ralts. He would let Tyrunt get a new TM after he had been with them for a while. The little dinosaur already had a good move pool and didn't need a new move for now.

Ash got Carrys' attention and told her what he wanted and the items were quickly gathered to be brought over to a register. "How is this going to be paid for? Cash, card, or electronically?" Carry asked as she rung the items up into her system, "and I would like you to know all the TMs you have chosen are reusable."

"TM pass and card," the teen said as he brought out the card Professor Oak had given him when he had filled out all the paperwork to become his OFRT, "Thanks for letting me know."

"TM pass?" Carry asked as she looked at the teen like he was crazy. Ash nodded and waved the card a bit to show her. It had his name, trainer number, and who he worked for on it and it would work like a regular bank card would.

"Yup," he said as he swiped the card and hit the confirmation button after putting his pin in before using his other card to pay for the other items he had gathered. It took a few moments, but the machine let out a small ding as the payment went through.

"Huh," Carry said as she handed the paid for items over. Ash smiled and took the items before leaving to find Paul. He was finished shopping and was quite ready to go fight Erika.

Paul was easy to spot since the teen was taller than the shelves and his purple hair stood out to the regular dark colored hair that Kanto natives had. "I'm done," Ash said as he walked up to Paul. In Pauls' hands were two bags filled as well as the bag from the shoe store.

"Me too," Paul replied, "Ready to go?"

Ash nodded and told Paul that he wanted to fight Erika today before the tournament tomorrow. Since the tournament wasn't a league sanctioned tournament that meant Erika didn't have to do anything for it.

"Okay," the taller teen said, "Do you want me to come or?"

"If you want to," Ash said after clearing his throat, "but you don't have to."

Before Paul could give an answer his 'dex rang causing him to look down at it before answering it, "Hello?"

Ash led the way to the Center as Paul spoke on the phone and did his best to not eavesdrop as they got closer to the large red building. It was kind of hard not to eavesdrop when the person speaking was next to him. So far it didn't seem like the person that called was picking a fight with Paul.

"How long will it take?" Paul asked as they entered the building and took the stairs to the upper floor where their room was. Ash unlocked the door and walked in first to deal with all of the things he had bought. He took out and folded the blankets before placing the toys beside them on the bed. He placed the treats he had gotten on the blankets and made them presentable for his pokémon after the gym fight.

"So 2 weeks to a month?"

Ash turned and saw Paul sitting on the edge of the bed still on the phone. It sounded to him like Paul had either ordered something and that was the expected arrival time period or that the person on the other side of the phone needed Paul to do something for them.

Turning back to his things Ash tucked the purple bandanna inside the side pocket of his bag before placing the TMs in their holding case and then putting that in his bag.

"Alright I'll get there as soon as I can," Paul sighed as he rubbed the back of his neck.

'So I was right,' Ash thought and tried not to let the feeling of disappointment fill him. He really wanted to keep traveling with Paul, but he knew he couldn't monopolize the older teens' time. After all they weren't in any sort of relationship other than being friends.

Ash kept his back turned as he heard Paul end his call. He pulled his bag back in his shoulders and made sure that Charmeleon and Zorua, the two he had decided on using in the Gym battle, were on his belt towards the front.

"I'm ready to go if you're coming," Ash said as he turned around to look at Paul.

Paul let out another sigh and stood up. "I can't come," he said as he grabbed his own bag, "My brother needs me in Sinnoh for a bit and the next plane out of here leaves soon. He already got me a ticket so I need to leave in a few minutes."

Ash, having already guessed that Paul needed to leave, slowly nodded. "That's fine," he said as he gripped the straps of his bag, "He needs you for something and he's your brother. I can understand that family comes before anything else."

Ash saw Paul staring at him for a few moments before he was given a nod by the taller teen. "Thanks," Paul said shouldering his bag and stood a step forward towards him, "I'll let you know when I get back if you want to meet up again."

Ash nodded and gave him a small smile, "Okay," he said softly before admitting, "I'll miss you. I'll be waiting for your text."

He could feel his cheeks becoming warm as a blush graced his pale cheeks. Paul let out a small chuckle and before Ash could say anything his lips were taken by dry warm ones. The kiss only lasted for a few moments before Paul was pulling away. "I'll miss you too," Paul said before the taller teen left the room leaving a shocked and red faced Ash in his wake.


	19. Chapter 19

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> What if Ash was more knowledgeable about Pokémon and the world around him before starting his journey? What if he got an opportunity like no other an decided to take it? Well here's to a different start with our Ash! Slash! Comashipping!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is cross posted to my Fanfiction site under the same name as it is on here. A few things before you begin reading. Ash is older at the start of his journey than in cannon. He is 16 years of age. Ash will be a bottom in his relationships. He will also capture pokemon he had not during the cannon episodes. He will know or be taught how to use Aura since I feel like they really failed in using it to its potential in the episodes. If there are anymore details I'll be sure to address them as they come up.
> 
> Main Pairing: AshxPaul
> 
> Side pairing: AshxGary (One sided on Gary's part)
> 
> Rating: M (to be safe)
> 
> Disclaimer: I do not own pokemon it belongs to Game Freak, Nintendo, Creatures, The Pokemon Company, etc, nor do I write this for profit. This is for entertainment use only.
> 
> Enjoy! And don't forget to leave a review!
> 
> I do want to thank everyone who has left a review so far!

Ash stood there stock still. He didn't even register the sound of the door behind him closing with a soft click. Ash could feel his face burning and his lungs begging for air which caused him to take in a sharp deep breath. "K-Kiss," Ash murmured, making Pikachu, who had moved to the bed, perk up and let out a chitter as if to confirm that, yes, his trainer did indeed get a kiss.

Ash shook his head to clear it though his cheeks remained red like he had gotten a mild sunburn. He grabbed Pikachu and held him close before leaving the room once more. He didn't see Paul as he went outside so he assumed he used his Abra to teleport himself to an airport to get to his flight on time.

Ash had let out a small sigh, but kept walking to the gym. He ignored the festivities as people ran around him carrying things to get the place ready for the tournament the next day. So he was on his own again. It would be weird, but he was adaptable. The time Paul would be gone just gave him more time to read his ancestors journal and books without having to sneak away for a bit or staying up to read by moonlight.

As he continued on towards the gym he pondered over what he had managed to read. The training his ancestor, Sir Aaron, was doing was quite slow, but Ash knew it was better to go slow then mess up by going fast. The consequences that Aaron had left in the journal was enough to scare him from doing something foolish.

Sir Aaron had written of how he had taken care of the people left in Aura Comas and what the Healers had told him about the side effects of being in one. Most people were left vegetables, but some were so immersed in the Aura that their bodies actually reacted to whatever stimuli was happening within the Aura. Some lost limbs, some got physically sick, others couldn't control their own digestive systems, some were wounded and scarred.

The last sentence in that particular entry chilled Ash to his core. Sir Aaron had written that some of the coma patients even died with no warning, and that it didn't matter what the Healers did, the patients were never brought back.

"Sir?"

Ash jolted out of his thoughts as a female voice cut through them like a knife. Looking up Ash saw a small woman, clearly older than himself though, who had light brown hair and blue eyes. Ash mentally shook his head as he took in where he was at.

His feet, though his mind was occupied at the moment, had taken him into the gym. The reception area was clean and painted in hues of greens, browns, and cream colors leaving it warm yet vibrant.

"Sorry," Ash apologized before adding, "I've got a lot on my mind. I'm here to battle Leader Erika."

The brunette giggled and nodded as she spoke, "It'll be just a moment. She's battling another trainer at the moment. If you could take a seat over there they should be done any moment now. Could I have your name and registration number?" Ash nodded and pulled out his 'dex, since it was easier to give his information on it than getting it from his watch.

When she was done Ash turned to where she had gestured and began to walk over to a seat. He thanked her and sat down on the rather plush and comfy green chair. As he sat and waited he thought over what pokémon he was going to use. Charmeleon was a given seeing as he was about to fight in a grass type gym, but his albino baby would be his last resort. He wanted to give Zorua a chance to fight. The little fox was just itching to fight for his trainer.

He would have used Tyrunt, but the newest addition to the family needed his time to settle down and train a bit more to get used to being given commands during a fight before any official battle. And seeing as Ralts and Zorua had joined the family and knew what to expect by watching the others training while they got healthier before Tyrunt was caught. Ash thought it would be fair if he gave Zorua and Ralts the chance to fight in a few official battles before Tyrunt.

Nodding to himself he grasped Zoruas' ball firmly in his hand just as the door to the back of the building opened and a trainer ran out. He heard the sobs of the trainer as they left before he was being called back for his fight. That didn't bode well for him, but he was confident in the abilities of his pokémon. They were ready for anything.

The brunette from before, Ash had seen on a nameplate that her name was Laura, led him down a corridor that had half wall half glass walls revealing rooms with different pokémon resting in them as well as a few lab like rooms where workers worked on something.

Not much was said as the corridor opened up to a large grass covered room. The ceiling was made of glass and a few bits were open to let in fresh air and warmth from the sun's rays. The grass that covered the floor felt real enough as he crossed the grass to the lone woman standing on the field.

Ash knew that Erika was older than him despite how short she was and wasn't to be underestimated. Her grass types could be more deadly than Surges' electric types. The woman standing before him had her dark brown hair cut just below her chin in a bob and was slightly pulled away from her face, leaving her bangs pressed down underneath, by a red ribbon. She wore a traditional kimono and had tori sandals and tabi socks adorning her feet.

Her kind brown eyes looked him up and down as he approached as if she were trying to determine what kind of trainer he was just by his appearance. "Good morning," she greeted politely as Ash stopped before her. Her voice was soft and kind, and while it was faint Ash could hear an undertone of harshness in her voice.

"Good morning Leader Erika," Ash greeted, "I would like to battle you today."

Ash saw her nod a small bit then turned her back to him to walk to a well worn spot of grass. Ash followed her example and moved to an area across from her that left plenty of space between them for their pokémon to fight. Ash looked over as movement caught his eye and he saw a different woman from the two he had already seen wearing a referee uniform.

"This two on two battle is between Celadon Gym Leader, Erika, and Gym Challenger, Ash Ketchum, from Pallet Town. No substitutions are allowed, no battle items or restorative items allowed, this match ends when all pokémon from one side are all knocked out. Do you both understand these rules?" the referee asked as she gripped the flags in her hands. Ash had a red flag while Erikas' flag was green.

"Yes/Understood!" Both Erika and Ash said at the same time.

"Begin!"

"Time to shine!" Erika called out as she threw out a ball.

"To battle!" Ash called out as well and released Zorua.

On the other side of the field a medium sized blue bulb like pokémon with small arms and legs that didn't look like they were done developing. Its head was covered by four reddish-brown round petals with white dots on them and several reddish-brown leaves. From its lips it drools a rather foul smelling goop that Ash was willing to bet money on that it was poisonous.

The pokémon let out a rather sad sounding sound as it spied a disguised Zorua. From what Ash read on the little foxs' species they were notorious for transforming into different pokémon at the beginning of their fights to make their opponent underestimate them and use different tactics than what they would have done if they knew what they were facing.

His Zorua had decided to take Krokoroks' form for this fight. Ash did have to admit that the form was flawless, but he knew it would give away when Zorua was hit once. The little fox didn't have the best of grasps on keeping the illusion up when hit.

"Gloom darling!" Erika called out, "Use Bullet Seed!"

The Gloom was much faster than Ash had thought as he saw it get in close before letting out a torrent of small seeds that exploded on the ground around Zoruas' feet. The disguised fox quickly moved out of the way before anything could hit him and whipped his tail around to try and trip up the Gloom as it went past.

The plant like pokémon merely jumped over the tail and let out another blast of seeds after another before it stopped letting the seeds loose. Thankfully Zorua was able to dodge the seeds, but it did make the small fox tired.

"Dark Pulse!"

Disguised eyes began to glow a dark purple color as Zorua listened to his trainer and let out wave after wave of dark aura like pulses towards the plant. The two pokémon exchanged move after move and with both of them dodging like they were the two creatures were beginning to tire out.

"Rush it!" Ash called out as he saw the Gloom trip on its own feet, "Use Assurance!"

He heard Zorua let out a snarl as he turned tail and rushed towards the stumbling plant. One front paw was glowing as Zorua prepared to use Assurance.

"Darling! Effect spore!" Erika spoke up causing Ash to grimace. He really hated effect spore. The Glooms' petals gained a dark green color before it shook its body causing small multi-colored particles to fly off of its body. It was too late for Zorua to dodge the spores and he breathed in a full breath of them.

The disguised fox began coughing and hacking as he tried to get the spores out of his eyes. His whole body was covered with the spores that were slowly beginning to be absorbed into the sand colored scales. Slowly a bright purple hue showed up on Zoruas' cheeks indicating that he was poisoned.

"Alright," Ash murmured softly, but loud enough for Zorua to hear him, "not much time, but you can do it. Use Extrasensory."

Instead of the dark purple color Zoruas' eyes had shone before his eyes glowed a bright pink color as he began to use his psychic move. Ash watched as the Gloom let out a screech as psychic strings pulled its body every which way before his Zorua used Assurance to knock it back.

"Vine Whip!" the Gym Leader commanded once the psychic attack gave way leaving the plant shaking and groaning. Nonetheless the plant obeyed its trainer and brownish red vines extended from its petals and with a lightning quick movement managed to nail Zorua on his abdomen.

His Zorua let out a yelp as he was flung back a bit, but managed to stay on his paws as the illusion fell revealing his form to Erika and the Gloom. Zorua let out a sharp bark as he ran, much quicker in this form than his disguised form, towards the Gloom with his paws glowing.

"What?" Ash heard Erika murmur as Zorua managed to land Assurance on Gloom making it fly back towards its trainer. While not super effective against the plant like creature Assurance had gained boosted damage dealt since Zorua had been hit right before using it.

The effects of both the Assurance and the time the two pokémon spent dodging each other's attacks caused Gloom to not stand back up as it landed on the grass before Erika.

"Gloom is unable to battle! Unknown pokémon wins!" the referee called out causing Zorua to yip in excitement. He did after all just win a very important battle for his trainer. The little fox turned tail and ran to his trainer while wagging his bushy tail.

"Good job," Ash said as he grinned at Zorua. He picked the little fox up and cuddled him close. He placed his back down to sit beside him as Erika chose her next pokémon. Its shape reminded Ash of a large blue green and orange pineapple and a duck. On its head was a large lily pad like sombrero and it was dancing to some music that it could hear as it did a little chant.

He had only seen that pokémon once on the tv when he was younger and from what he could remember it was a different color than this one. "To battle!" Ash called out as he released Charmeleon. His albino baby let out a roar that made the glass around them rattle in their frames. Ash could see the incredulous stares of Erika and her referee, but chose to ignore them as he yelled out for his Charmeleon to attack.

Charmeleon let out a roar before unleashing a torrent of bright red flames towards the pineapple duck. Ash cursed his luck as the creature they were fighting let out a strong blast of water making the room fill with steam as it met Charmeleons' fire.

"Good job Ludicolo," Erika said as she smirked, "Use it again then Solar Beam!"

"Charmeleon dodge!" Ash cried out as the Ludicolo let out another strong blast of water towards his albino baby. Charmeleon quickly dodged and swung his tail around to hit the Ludicolo.

Charmeleon growled in frustration as his opponent dodged his tail before the strange pokémon began glowing a light green color as it absorbed the sunlight that filtered inside from the glass ceiling. He bared his fangs before releasing another stream of fire and just managed to catch the Ludicolo in his fire. He kept the stream up for a bit before letting up. Ash just hoped it was enough. He didn't need the Ludicolo to let out another Hydro Pump and extinguish Charmeleons' tail flame.

The Ludicolo though was still standing, if not a bit wobbly, and had its eyes focused on the Charmeleon. The Ludicolo let out a warbled call before it tipped over onto his back with its eyes rolling into the back of its head. Ash let out a soft sigh as he placed his hands on his knees.

They won.

"Ludicolo is unable to battle. Charmeleon wins! All of the Gym Leaders' pokémon are unable to fight. Ash Ketchum wins this challenge!" the referee called out as she rose the red flag in Ashs' direction. Charmeleon let out a loud roar before moving back to his trainer to get praised and jaw scratches.

"Good job!" Ash said as he gave the large lizard his jaw scratches, "You did fantastic!" Charmeleon let out a crooning sound as Zorua barked from his feet. Pikachu even let out his own chittering as if to congratulate the two for winning.

The sound of footsteps coming closer caused Ash to look up and he saw Erika just a few feet away. Her Ludicolo was swaying behind her and looking a little better than just a moment ago. Ash assumed that Erika gave it a revive and a potion until they were able to get to the Center.

"Congratulations, Ash Ketchum," Erika said as she gave him a small smile, "Your Charmeleon must be strong to knock Ludicolo out in one hit, but Ludicolo is one of my newer catches. So you better watch out of you come back here with Charmeleon! Ludicolo will be sure to beat him next time!"

Ash let out a small laugh and nodded. "I'll be sure to make my way back again after defeating the other gyms. I have much to learn and it's good experience fighting the Leaders," Ash said as the referee approached.

Erika gave him a small nod as she grabbed the box the other woman was holding. "Here," she said, "You earned this Rainbow Badge as well as this TM Solar Beam."

"Thank you," Ash said as he took the two items. The Solar Beam was unexpected but useful nonetheless. "Ah quick question," Ash asked before Erika could leave.

She tilted her head a bit in confusion before answering, "Yes?"

"Is your Ludicolo a shiny?" Ash asked as he looked over the pokémon. The slightly dancing pokémon looked over at him when he spoke the creatures name.

Erika giggled and nodded, "Indeed she is!" she said as she placed her hand on Ludicolos' arm, "I caught her a few months ago as a Lombre when I visited the Safari Zone in Fuchsia. What about your pokémon? I've never seen a Charmeleon that color before and I haven't seen a little pokémon like this one before either."

"Charmeleon is albino according to Bill," Ash said as he gave Charmeleon another scratch before picking up Zorua, "and this is Zorua. He's a rescue and his kind originates from Unova, but he was illegally brought here by some scientist or something."

Erika let out a small hum and nodded. The two exchanged a few more words before Ash made his farewells and left the Gym. That was four gyms down now. He only needed to fight four more and from what he had heard from others the last four gyms were the hardest out of the eight. The next in line if he were to do them in order would be Koga, in Fuchsia. Then Sabrina, in Saffron. Blaine on Cinnabar Island. Then Giovanni in Veridion.

Koga specializes in poison types while Sabrina specializes in psychics. Blaine focuses on fire types, and Giovanni works with anything he can make strong, but tries to pinpoint his specialization on ground types. Out of all of them Giovanni and Sabrina would be the hardest to fight. He would need to work with Zorua and Horsea the most and get them up to evolving, but he wouldn't neglect his other pokémon.

For now he supposed that he would keep traveling and training until he felt like he could at least make a scratch on the Gym Leaders pokémon.

"What to do next," Ash murmured to himself as he made his way to the center of the town. He could either go back to the Center again, which he would to get Charmeleon and Zorua looked over, and stay another night, or he could go straight from leaving the Center and get to the next town.

He started heading towards the Center since the two plans he had thought up began there anyway. He was close to it anyway.

After making sure his two pokémon were all good he headed towards his room just to make sure he had grabbed everything before he headed out. He had taken the time waiting for Charmeleon and Zorua to be looked over to make a decision.

He was going to stay the night and in the morning he would pick a direction and head that way without a destination in mind. He would keep track of the days however since it was only a month before the S.S. Anne docked in Vermilion. He would go as far as he could before doubling back. He would train his pokémon of course during his time in the wild and he hoped that a couple of them would evolve.

Horseas' scales are getting harder everyday and his tail is getting stronger and stronger. His head fins were beginning to gain a webbing in between them like the webbed feet of a Golduck. His snout was getting longer as well.

Despite Tyrunt only being with him for a small while he was showing signs of changing. The reptile must have been close to evolving before he was fossilized and with the rigorous training Tyrunt was doing he was getting close. His snout was becoming more round and was gaining spikes. His hard feathers around his neck were shedding at a rapid pace leaving hard spikes in their place that mimicked the feathers. But not much has been learned about Tyrunt and his species so Ash wasn't sure if these were signs of an upcoming evolution.

Ralts' 'dress' was getting shorter showing them her small and skinny green legs that were exposed when she evolved. Her horn was getting larger and her psychic ability was getting stronger. Ash hoped to train her a lot and get her to evolve before Mewtwo got back to take her away for a while.

Zorua was unchanged at the moment just like Nidorino, who needed a moonstone to evolve, Krokorok, and Pikachu, who didn't want to evolve when Ash had brought it up last time, and Charmeleon, who had just evolved not long ago.

With those thoughts in mind and written down in his own journal of his journey Ash settled onto the bed, and gave the empty one in the room a sad glance, before pulling out his ancestors' journal. He had released his pokémon and they were all either talking away with another or sleeping like Pikachu, who had curled up beside him.

Ash placed a hand on the scarred Pikachu, who let out a soft purr, as he flipped to the page he had left off on before he joined Paul.

_September XX, XXXX_

_Day fifty-six of training._

_As I sit here in my room writing this I am currently caring for my very own egg!_

_Master Roque has deemed me to be progressing in my training enough to get a Riolu for myself. Of course I got one while it's in its egg like all of the other trainees before me and after me. Master Roque has been beating, not literally, it into my head that the bond between Aura Guardian and their companion Riolu/Lucario was a bond to cherish to its fullest extent._

_Master did tell me, as well as the Masters watching over the eggs and the mothers, that there were a few things I would have to do to get my egg to hatch._

_First, I would have to leave it in its incubator until the outer egg hardens fully before I can take it out and cuddle it._

_Second, cuddling is a must! Apparently the baby in the egg imprints with the one that has had it for a while. It uses the Aura the person, or pokémon, has to imprint on them so when it does hatch they can always find their caretaker/parent._

_Thirdly, this won't apply until later in the process, but I have to 'feed' my Aura to the egg. Master and the Master Caretakers have all taught me how to do it with water balloons before they were even okay with me trying to do it with another living being._

_Basically what I had to do was fill the balloons with just enough Aura for the 'baby' inside of it to form their own Aura Core, too much Aura in the balloons causes it to burst. Too much Aura in one session could leave the baby inside disfigured or mutated. I spent six months doing this process with water balloons before I felt even remotely comfortable trying it on a Lucario, who had given me their permission before I could even try it._

_This process is to begin when the egg starts to change its coloring. As far as I know Riolu eggs are the only eggs that actually physically change their coloring when it gets closer to hatching. The egg I have is very dark in color. Almost like the entire egg is black, but I can tell there are bands of a dark blue and yellow on it. The lighter the egg coloring is the closer it is to hatching. I don't know the specifics to why it changes coloring and the only answer I have gotten is because of Aura. It's life. Literal life. The lighter the egg the more life it has._

_The Master Caretakers have told me of several cases of trainees coming to them when their eggs, one day bright and lively, turned dark and sickly looking._

_I hope that it never happens to me._

_I don't want anything to happen to Riolu._

_I'm already attached._

_End of day fifty-six of training._

_A. R.K._

Ash put down the book and looked over at his egg. It was still a bit dark in color like how Sir Aaron in the book described his egg, but he could see the bands of color becoming lighter. He began to worry. He really needed to get a hold on his Aura before his Riolu faces the consequences of his own actions.

He wouldn't let Riolu die!


	20. Chapter 20

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> What if Ash was more knowledgeable about Pokémon and the world around him before starting his journey? What if he got an opportunity like no other an decided to take it? Well here's to a different start with our Ash! Slash! Comashipping!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is cross posted to my Fanfiction site under the same name as it is on here. A few things before you begin reading. Ash is older at the start of his journey than in cannon. He is 16 years of age. Ash will be a bottom in his relationships. He will also capture pokemon he had not during the cannon episodes. He will know or be taught how to use Aura since I feel like they really failed in using it to its potential in the episodes. If there are anymore details I'll be sure to address them as they come up.
> 
> Main Pairing: AshxPaul
> 
> Side pairing: AshxGary (One sided on Gary's part)
> 
> Rating: M (to be safe)
> 
> Disclaimer: I do not own pokemon it belongs to Game Freak, Nintendo, Creatures, The Pokemon Company, etc, nor do I write this for profit. This is for entertainment use only.
> 
> Enjoy! And don't forget to leave a review!
> 
> I do want to thank everyone who has left a review so far!

Ash nodded as he shrugged on his backpack that was filled with everything he needed before double checking his next destination on his watch. He had traveled home after defeating Erika, thanks to Professor Oaks' Alakazam, and spent a few days there to relax as he spoke to his mother and the Professor. His pokémon had gotten check ups with Oak and his team and were deemed healthy and whole meaning that Ash could kick Zorua and Ralts' training up.

Oak was especially interested in Ralts, Zorua, Charmeleon, Krokorok and Tyrunt seeing as they were new, or rather odd, pokémon that the man hadn't had the pleasure of studying. Also while he was there in the lab Oak had given him a few things to download into his watch of research of his pokémon he had done while Ash was away. Ash had thanked him before he skimmed the titles of the files. There was a file on Zorua, Krokorok, Ralts, and Tyrunt with all the information the old man could gather in their species.

He appreciated the effort that Oak went through to get the files.

"Ready to go?"

Ash looked up from his watch to see his mother standing in the doorway to his room. "Uh," Ash said as he mentally checked off a list he had in his head, "Yeah. I think so."

"Alright," Delia said as she smiled, "Oak wanted to talk to you before you left Pallet. So don't forget to swing by there before you leave."

Ash nodded and gave his mother a smile before kissing her cheek and gave her a big hug. "I won't," he said, "I'll be back before you know it!"

"I know," Delia replied as she held her son close. Ash seemed to have shot up in height and was almost as tall as she was. "Be careful," she said when she pulled away, "Be safe. And call when you can."

"Promise," Ash said softly before his mother let him go to leave. Pikachu let out a soft cooing sound and mimicked a salute to his mother before jumping up onto his trainers' shoulder. Ash left the house, but not without saying goodbye to Mr. Mime, and started heading towards the Lab where he had left his pokémon to relax and enjoy the food Oak was giving them.

As he neared the Lab he could hear the many calls of pokémon not native to the areas around Pallet getting louder. He sighed as he heard the calls of two of his own pokémon, Krokorok and Charmeleon. Lately those two had been at heads with each other and wanting to fight at every opportunity. So far it's been a blessing that neither of them has injured the other bad enough to scar or break bones. Or that Tyrunt had joined them in their fights.

He was a bit grateful for Nidorino during the times they fought. The short purple lizard had started to become the voice of reason between the two and could usually break up the fights before they got too far. The others were too small to help break them up or they weren't there at all if they were with Oak during the time the fight started.

"Professor?" Ash called out as he entered the Lab. Usually the old man, during the day at least, was in the main hub of the Lab working on something or another while his aids worked around him or with him.

"Over here my dear boy!" Oak said as he rose one arm up where his hand just breached the top of the stack of papers that surrounded the man. Ash let out a small chuckle as he saw the papers. It seemed like the old man hadn't been doing his paperwork like he should have been.

"You okay in there?" Ash asked as he neared the stacks.

Oak laughed as he pushed away from the desk and stood up. Ash winced a small bit as he heard bones popping as Oak stretched. "Oh," Oak sighed as he relaxed, "Do remember Ash that sitting at a desk, hunched over to do paperwork, at my age is a big no no. It's just better to do the work when it appears than leave it till the last minute and then have to deal with a bad back for the rest of the day."

"I'll be sure to remember that," Ash said as he nodded and held back the chuckle that threatened to escape, "Um, Mom said you wanted to talk to me?"

Oak nodded and gestured for him to follow as he led the way to his office where he kept his main computer, for private research purposes, and whatnot. Once inside the, surprisingly clean, office they sat down in the chairs and Oak turned his computer on. "Now," the old man said as he logged into his system, "Surge has gotten into contact with me yesterday. He told me about what you did for his nephew and about the rewards he gave you, and the only reason he spoke to me is because you are one of my employees and he didn't have your contact information."

Ash nodded as he listened. So far what the old man said had made sense. "Okay," Ash said as he sat back in his seat while Pikachu clambered down onto his lap. Ash slowly ran his fingers through the soft fur.

"Well," Oak continued once he saw that Ash wasn't going to say anything else, "The breeder he originally contacted about you is retiring within the next two weeks and selling his practice since he has no family to hand it down to. Surge wants to know if you want to make the journey to the breeder and see what pokémon he has left in his possession or if you want him to get into contact with a different breeder?" Oak turned his screen around to show Ash what was on the screen.

Little Rosies' Sanctuary, Rehabilitation, and Breeding. It was established sixty years ago and was named after the owner's daughter, Rose Marie Cutler, who tragically died when she was ten before she was able to go on her journey. The little girl had a special bond with pokémon and it spurred on the dream of her father to open his practice to help nurture and bring up pokémon.

Set to change ownership June XX, XXXX.

Ash bit his lip softly as he continued to look over the website. It was sad that the owner was selling his practice, but he could see why. The owner was old, wanting to retire and sadly couldn't give it to his child. "Where is it at?" Ash asked, wanting to know where it was before he agreed to go. He did only have a month before the ship was to arrive and he did want to give his pokémon some training before then.

"Kalos."

Kalos was a bit far to travel, but there were many pokémon there that he had never seen before. His adventurous side was exclaiming yes while his more sensible side was telling him no. Ash looked down at Pikachu, who flicked his ear, before looking up at Oak.

"I wouldn't know my way around Kalos if I did go there," Ash said after a moment, "I could lose my way and get lost."

"I can get into contact with the head professor of the region to get you a guide to the breeder," Oak contested as he gave the young man a smile. He knew the teen would say yes. He sees himself more in this young man than he does his own grandson. "If you do go," Oak added, "I can give you something to give to Professor Sycamore, the head regional professor, and pay for your flight and accommodations since you are an OFRT for myself and it's part of your contract that I do so."

Ash narrowed his eyes as he looked at the old man. "What's the catch?" Ash asked as he took a deep breath.

"Nothing much," Oak said as he shook his head, "I just want updates on whatever pokémon you choose. I am after all a pokémon professor and I do love studying new pokémon."

Ash hummed softly as he thought it over. He could go and see a region he had never been to and get a pokémon from that region or he could see what other breeder Surge had on his call list. He tossed the options back and forth in his head for a few moments before finally deciding on what to do.

"I'll go," the teen said with a heavy feeling in his stomach. Ash was just nervous to leave the region. Anything could happen. He could get stranded there. He could get hurt. He could-

"Excellent!" Oak said thoroughly, breaking Ash out of his debilitating thoughts, "I'll arrange the flight and where you will stay for your time there! From what I've gathered the breeder isn't too far from the town the professor is in."

Ash took a deep breath and nodded as the professor continued to speak about the Kalos region as he set up the plane ticket. The region was large, but that was just because of the two mountain ranges that closed it off from the rest of the world. While it was accessible by boat, since the northwest to the southwest met the Pokésific Ocean, out of region tourists usually entered the region by plane.

The region was separated by three distinct divisions thanks to the vastly different climates of the region. The first was the Coastal Kalos division. The division was filled with what someone would associate with summer. Sand, water, Wingulls, and very mild weather. The second division was Central Kalos, the main hubbub of the region. It held the most towns and was in the very middle of the Kalos region with a large tower in the direct middle of the largest city there, Lumiose. The last division was the Mountainous Kalos division. It covered the entirety of the east side of the region with the colder mountains towards the northeast and the hotter mountains in the southeast.

"Well," Oak said a few moments after finishing speaking of the geography of the region, "Your plane will leave tomorrow morning around seven. You'll have to get there two hours early at least to get through security and customs. That was the only opening I could get you."

"Okay," Ash said as he got up from the chair. His bottom had gone a bit numb fro sitting so long. "Where is the stuff I need to take with me to the professor?" he asked as he stretched.

"In the main lab," Oak said as he led the way out to the main room, "Sycamore has been researching these mysterious stones that are tied to what he believes can trigger another stage of evolution in a pokémon that is already fully evolved."

Ash nodded before what Oak said caught up to him mentally. "What stones?" Ash asked as he thought over the weird stone he had chosen at the Cerulean gym.

"They look like large marbles," the older man said as he grabbed a large file from the desk, that was still covered in paperwork, "Here it is!"

Ash shrugged his bag off, after Pikachu had thoughtfully moved off of the strap, and dug through it. He softly exclaimed as his hands wrapped around the marble. "You mean like this?" Ash asked as he pulled it out. The 'stone' glimmered in the artificial light as he held it.

Oak looked over and saw the marble in his employees' hand and nodded. "That looks like the one in the pictures Sycamore has sent over," Oak said as he got a closer look, "Different colors though. I'm sure Sycamore would love to see it."

Ash nodded and placed the marble back in his bag along with the file before putting it back on. "How long will I be there?" Ash asked, "I mean in Kalos in general."

"Shouldn't be too long," Oak said as he walked with Ash to the pastures where his pokémon were at, "A few days to a week at the most."

Ash blinked as the bright sunlight hit his eyes suddenly as they went outside. He could still hear his Krokorok and Charmeleon fighting and he looked around to see if he could see them. "They've been fighting a lot since you left them here," Oak said as he heard them fighting as well.

"Would you know why?" Ash asked as they headed towards the dust cloud that puffed up after a heavy thud could be heard.

"Could be anything really," Oak replied, "it could be a dominance fight, a small misunderstanding, a hormone thing, or they could just be wanting to test each other to see who is the strongest between the two of them."

When they reached the cloud Ash could see the rest of his pokémon standing off to the side while Krokorok and Charmeleon were snout to snout. Krokorok swung his tail around and struck the albino making him stumble to the side. Charmeleon countered with a flamethrower to Krokoroks' face making the crocodile hiss in pain and lash out with his tail again.

Charmeleon lunged forward and bit into Krokoroks' shoulder causing the sandy colored reptile to bleed once his teeth were ripped out from Krokorok thrashing about. Ash stepped forward and let out a sharp whistle before Krokorok could use Assurance on the albino.

"What the hell are you two doing?! Sparring is one thing, but this is not acceptable," Ash said as he stared at the two. Charmeleon let out a bellow and swished his flame tipped tail as Krokorok let out a guttural hiss as the flame got too close to him.

Ash kept his disappointed stare up as he looked between the two and he could see the two beginning to cower a bit from the look. He knew his pokémon hated seeing the look on his face, but the two of them beating each other up until one, or both of them, started bleeding was too far.

He heard Oak from behind him starting to walk away once the old man saw that he had the situation under control. "Well?" Ash asked as he saw that the two of them weren't going to try and tell him in any way what was going on between them.

Ash began studying them to see if there was anything physically telling about them besides the injuries that is. The two reptiles were taller than Ash remembered them being when they first evolved. Krokorok was thicker in muscle and was more agitated just standing there. His teeth seemed to have elongated and his scales were taking on a redder color like he had gotten a sunburn on them.

Charmeleons' head almost reached his collarbone when he was just a bit under his shoulders a few weeks ago after he evolved. His snout was longer and there were two nubs growing beside his longer horn. As the reptile moved a bit Ash could see another two nubs on his back where his wings would be when he evolved.

Evolved.

They were fighting because they were close to evolving.

Ash let out a sigh as he ran a hand over his face. Of course the extra hormones that came with the pre-evolution of an evolution could cause anger and other radical emotions to act up. Ash would eat his left foot, shoe and sock included, if that wasn't the case with the two right here. And of course they had to do this at the same time.

"Okay you two," Ash said a few minutes later effectively breaking the silence that had fallen over the group, "I now know that you two are close to evolving, and against my better judgement, you two are going to go all out against each other. This is a one time thing. Got it? This is to get all of the aggression out that you can before you evolve."

That got the attention of his pokémon and Ash could tell by the tension in their bodies that they really needed this. He didn't know if this would get them to evolve, but with the amount of fighting they have done in the past while they have been there they should be very close.

Charmeleon let out a roar in challenge as he turned towards Krokorok. The crocodile snarled and let out a hiss that shook the ground they walked on.

Ash quickly backed up to his other pokémon. He didn't dare sit down in case he had to get between them before one of them did something like permanently injuring the other. He winced as he watched the two reptiles tear into each other.

Ash knew pokémon could get aggressive, but he didn't know it could get this aggressive. Scales and blood flew from each reptile and cracks could be heard as they smacked into each other over and over again. Ash was sure the two had broken bones and teeth.

Charmeleon was the first one to use a move other than a physical one as he shot fire at Krokorok. The crocodile, panting and bleeding, took the fire and used Assurance like he was going to do before their trainer interrupted them. Fire, claws, tails, and roars were exchanged until Krokorok managed to hit Charmeleon hard enough to send the albino back.

His baby smacked into the ground with a hard thud and a loud crack. Ash could tell that Charmeleon was about at the end of his rope and was about to call the fight off when a loud earth rumbling roar came from Charmeleon. Slowly his baby rose up using only one arm to get him up to his feet.

Charmeleon let out a snarl and a flash of fire before his body began to glow with his evolution. Ash watched as the glowing form got bigger, much bigger than a Charizard usually was. When the blinding light faded Ash was able to admire his babys' form.

Perfect white scales glimmered in the sunlight as large wings were spread out from behind a snarling Charizard. Charizard opened his mouth and let out a large stream of bright purple and blue flames towards Krokorok. The crocodile let out a loud scream as the flames burned his scales. Charizard flapped his wings a few times making the stream larger with the wind.

"Charizard!" Ash yelled as he saw Krokorok go down, "That's enough!"

The new evolution of his baby didn't listen. Bright red eyes were filled with an emotion Ash couldn't name, but stream after stream of Dragon's Breath beat into Krokorok over and over again. It wasn't until the fifth stream that Charizard stopped and let out a louder deeper roar at the Krokorok. He stomped a foot down and swished his tail back and forth as he let out a series of snarls and growls at the downed croc. Ash was about to step in when a female voice filtered into his head.

" _Father… it's okay."_

Ash looked down to see Ralts, her voice was calm and soft.

" _Look."_

Krokorok was slowly getting to his feet while letting out a pained hiss. His own tail was twitching back and forth as Charizard still let out growls. The crocs' tail thudded against the ground as he let out a snarl causing Charizard to stop in whatever rant he was going on with.

Krokorok was breathing heavy and he let out a loud snarl before his own body began to glow. Ash was amazed. Two of his pokémon evolved back to back. They worked together to achieve this. He was insanely proud of them.

Krokoroks' body shot up in height as well as in girth. His tail extended and sharp points formed on his back. As the light faded Ash could see that the once sandy brown scales turned a maroon-ish red and black and his snout grew longer as well. His head, physically that is, had gotten bigger and was more proportional to his body that in his previous evolutions.

Krookodile fell a bit, but managed to catch himself on his knee. The two of them were in pretty rough shape, but Ash knew they were going to be alright. He stood up and walked over to the two of them and gave them a proud smile.

"Let's get you two looked at," he said softly as he laid one had on each of them, "then it's onward to Kalos for us."


	21. Chapter 21

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> What if Ash was more knowledgeable about Pokémon and the world around him before starting his journey? What if he got an opportunity like no other an decided to take it? Well here's to a different start with our Ash! Slash! Comashipping!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is cross posted to my Fanfiction site under the same name as it is on here. A few things before you begin reading. Ash is older at the start of his journey than in cannon. He is 16 years of age. Ash will be a bottom in his relationships. He will also capture pokemon he had not during the cannon episodes. He will know or be taught how to use Aura since I feel like they really failed in using it to its potential in the episodes. If there are anymore details I'll be sure to address them as they come up.
> 
> Main Pairing: AshxPaul
> 
> Side pairing: AshxGary (One sided on Gary's part)
> 
> Rating: M (to be safe)
> 
> Disclaimer: I do not own pokemon it belongs to Game Freak, Nintendo, Creatures, The Pokemon Company, etc, nor do I write this for profit. This is for entertainment use only.
> 
> Enjoy! And don't forget to leave a review!
> 
> I do want to thank everyone who has left a review so far!

Ash sighed as he looked out the window of the plane Oak had gotten him a ticket for. He was tired and if he were to be honest, irritable. It didn’t help that he wasn’t allowed to have one of his pokémon, Pikachu, free on the plane. The little mouse was usually quick to calm him down and kept him grounded since he didn’t like crowds all that much.

Thankfully Pikachu was okay with being in his ball for the flight to Kalos and back. Of course he had to be bribed with ketchup flavored treats, but he at least didn’t electrocute anyone or thing.

Getting onto his flight was a chore and a half seeing as he had to get to the airport early to get his bags checked, then he had to register himself into their system seeing as he wasn’t just a regular trainer and that he had sensitive information for a professor, then he had to register the pokémon he was taking with him. By the time they were done he was almost late in getting onto his plane to leave.

Which leaves him here. Tired and irritated and without something/one to cuddle.

He looked down at his watch once more and sighed as he saw that he only had an hour before he was set to land. Oak had called to give him a run down of what he was supposed to do when he landed while he was getting ready to get on the flight to Kalos. A man by the name, Alain, was going to be there waiting for him to get him to get registered as a worker in the Kalos region for a small period of time before taking him to the lab.

From there, if he was tired, he could either sleep there for the night or continue on towards the breeder. The breeder was only a day away from the lab by walking or a few hours by car. Thankfully, for Ash, Alain had offered to give him a ride either that day or the next depending on how tired he was.

Ash, though, had already decided on going to the breeder despite how tired he was. He was anxious about meeting the new member of the family. Getting there early just gave him more time to bond with his new pokémon before having to uproot it from the only place it knew. He had a few types in mind to look over.

He needed a grass type, a ghost type, a bug type, a normal type, an ice type, and a flying type. He would be on the lookout for those types, but here in Kalos there was a vast difference in pokémon and he hoped that this Alain, or the breeder, would help him choose correctly.

_ “Attention all passengers, this is your Captain speaking. In a few moments we will be landing. I would like to ask that all trays be put in their upright positions, electronics are shut off, and your seat belts are on! Thank you for flying Kalos Airlines, and I hope you had an enjoyable flight.” _

Ash let out a sigh of relief as he pushed the tray in front of him up, and then buckled himself in. He gripped his bag, the only luggage he brought with him, and looked out the window. Lumiose City, the largest City Ash had ever seen, was bright with all its lights on and from the sun's rays bouncing off reflective surfaces. Ash, as the plane lowered, saw four larger roads leaving from the massive center building and he assumed those were the main roads. Speaking of the massive building, he had never seen anything like it. It stood on four main ‘legs’ and easily reached the clouds as tall as it was.

The tower was still visible as the plane landed, quite smoothly, and they disembarked. The airport they were at was just as large as the city it was housed in. Ash speculated that everything in this Region was just going to be much larger than in his own and he tried his best to not get overwhelmed by the culture shock. As he walked to the main part of the airport, a weird language entered his ears, and as much as he tried to ignore it, as well as the foreign writing on the walls, he was getting more freaked out by it.

He hoped that this Alain at least spoke English.

He looked around the main room of the airport, where most people waited for their flights, to see if he could find the man Oak had described to him.

“Excuse me, are you Ash Ketchum?” a deep accented males voice said from behind Ash.

Jumping a bit Ash turned around quickly to face who was talking. The man was tall and had dark hair that stood up in a few places while his eyes were a deep blue. He wore a black button down shirt, slacks, loafers, and had a white lab coat over his shirt. “Yeah,” Ash said as he stepped back a bit to put some space between them, “You’re Alain?”

The man did look like down Oak had described Alain. “That’s me!” he said with a smirk, “Ready to finish registering? We’ll go to the Lab afterwards.”

Ash nodded and followed Alain to the counter where he needed to register. Registering was a quicker process here than in Kanto, but Ash assumed that was because they had requested a copy of the file from Kanto to be sent here. All he needed to do was show his passport as well as his working visa before telling them how long he was staying in their Region.

After everything was filed and he was let go Alain had led him outside to a gray car. The ride was quick and silent, but Ash didn’t mind as he had kept his eyes glued to the window to take everything in. From what he had seen when he looked the Lab up it was by the outskirts of Lumiose City and owned a rather large chunk of land behind it like Oak owned most of the area around Pallet.

The Professor, Sycamore, was rather young for a Professor and mostly did his studies in what was called Mega Evolution. There wasn’t much online about it when he had looked up the information after hearing it from Oak. He looked forward to picking Sycamores’ brain about it.

He wondered if any of his pokémon could Mega Evolve, but he wasn’t going to get his hopes up on it. It was probably only pokémon from this region that can do it. Ash looked away from the window as the car slowed down to look in front of them. He had noticed that the environment around them had changed from bustling city to an area that he could only describe as a mix of suburban and rural. There was plenty of space between buildings the further out they went, but it was still more compact that an rural area.

The main building that they stopped at was large and covered with multitudes of windows and beige colored brick. The large front door was already open and Ash could see a few pokémon running about inside of it. To Ash this building looked more like a mansion then an actual lab.

“Well here we are,” Alain said as he stopped the car and turned it off before getting out, “Sycamore should be inside towards the back. That’s where he usually is anyway at this time of the day.”

“Alright,” the teen said as he followed the taller man inside of the building. The inside matched the sophistication Ash had seen on the outside. The floors were tiled with a couple of deep blue area rugs while the walls were a bright off white color and sheer blue curtains that covered many of the windows.

There were a few others in lab coats doing things at desks or caring for a few pokémon as they passed and Ash took in the many pokémon they had that he had never seen. As they walked Alain had told him what the pokémon were with an amused tone of voice, but Ash ignored it as he soaked up the information. He was always happy to learn about pokémon.

“Ah Alain!”

Ash looked over from Alain to see an even taller man, just a few inches taller than Alain, with dark, chin length, wavy hair and equally dark colored eyes. The man looked cheery as he walked over with a chest high pokémon following behind him and a few smaller pokémon behind it. The mans’ accent was more pronounced than Alains’ accent.

“This must be Ash Ketchum!” the man said as he got closer. His wide grin made the man look younger, but Ash could see the slight laugh lines he was getting.

“Yes sir,” Ash said as he nodded, “You must be Professor Sycamore?”

“Oui!”

The foreign word caught him off guard, but he didn’t let it show on his face as the man began to ramble on to Alain. As he spoke, Ash took the time to look over the pokémon that were now playing with the chest high pokémon. The tallest pokémon was bi-pedal and covered in varying hues of blue scales while its belly and under jaw was a dark red color. It had long sharp fins on its arms, one on its back, and another on its tail. On its head was two jet looking appendages and he wondered if they served a purpose.

The smaller pokémon playing at its feet were two small lion-like creatures with a tuft of reddish-orange fur between their round ears. He watched with amusement as the two lions tussled on the fake grass they were on. Litleo they were called if he remembered what Alain had said.

“I’m very sorry,” the Professor said as he turned to Ash, “I needed to get some thoughts off my chest about the research I’ve been doing. Alain here is really good as a bounce board. Now, have you decided on staying here for the night before you leave? Or do you wish to leave now?”

Ash bit the inside of his cheek for a moment before replying. “I would like to go and get back before dark,” he said softly with a small smile.

The Professor smiled back and nodded before telling Alain that he was free for the rest of the day to go with Ash and that he could go home after dropping Ash back off here. Alain offered to pick them something up to eat as they left the lab. It was about midday in this region and just thinking about food made Ashs’ belly grumble.

Before they got back in the car though Ash reached down and grabbed Pikachus’ ball. He should have let the little mouse out when he got off the plane, but it was busy at the airport and he didn’t want to let him out in the car in case he got a little shock happy.

The little mouse looked up at his trainer and growled a little before holding out a little paw. Letting out a sigh Ash dropped a couple of ketchup flavored treats into the small paw before gathering him up. He would give the electric type a few more on the ride to the breeder. Standing up with Pikachu now in his arms he turned to Alain and sent him a small glare as he saw the older man trying to hide his laughter.

“Don’t say anything,” Ash grumbled as he got into the car and buckled in after placing his bag on the floorboard. The drive to the breeder was longer than the drive to the Lab, but the scenery more than made up for it. Ash had to admit Kalos was a beautiful region, but his heart would always be with Kanto.

As Alain drove Ash kept keeping the treats to Pikachu to the mouses’ heart content as Alain made small talk. It was just small things like wanting to know about his pokémon and how it was like in Kanto. When Alain learned he had a Charizard the older man got excited and made Ash promise a battle of the Charizards the next day when he got back to the Lab. Apparently the older man had a Charizard as well.

With a small laugh Ash agreed and finally put the treats away when Pikachu curled up in his lap to take a small nap. Ash did feel immensely better now that he had one of his pokémon out and about with him. He couldn’t help but run his fingers over Pikachus’ ears before settling his hand on his back. The little mouse had made huge progress with trusting him since day one when Ash had been given him in the Lab. Ash felt as though he knew that Pikachu knew he wouldn’t leave the little guy.

Pikachu had even begun to help the smallest of the pack with their training. He ran along side them, coached them when they were mastering their moves, and gave them bits of berries and some water when they needed it. Ash was extremely proud of the little mouse.

Ash looked down and gave the sleeping electric type a small smile before looking back up to see them just passing a large metal arch with the breeder facilities name on it. Soon enough they were approaching a large brick building and the sounds of pokémon could be heard even through the closed windows.

“Here we are,” Alain piped up just a moment after he had parked and turned off the car, “Ready?”

“Yeah,” Ash said a little breathlessly as he took in the area. The area the building was in a beautiful. A large pond that had various water types by it, an even larger field that had many types of pokémon that Ash didn’t know of frolicking in the grass, the tall trees had bird pokémon in them, and there was even a sand and dirt area for the types that liked it.

“It’s really beautiful here,” Ash murmured once they entered the building.

“Why thank you!”

A gruff older sounding voice caught Ash by surprise and when he looked over at who spoke he was surprised to see a rather fit old gentleman dressed causally. This wasn’t someone Ash would have thought to want to retire, but he supposed the old man earned it.

“Mr. Cutler?” Ash asked as he walked over.

The old mans’ mustache twitched a bit before a smile spread over his lips. “I am Mr. Cutler, but please feel free to call me Burt!” Burt said as he placed his hands on his hips, “And who are you?”

Ash smiled back as Pikachu perked up a bit. “I’m Ash Ketchum,” he said introducing himself, “and this is Pikachu.”

“Ah! Yes, the boy little Matis emailed me about,” Burt said as he gestured for them to follow, “Have you any thought about what pokémon you are looking for?”

Ash just about let out a snort when he realized that the old man was talking about Lt. Surge. Little. That man. That was really laughable since Surge was the largest, height he means, man he had even encountered.

“There’s a few types I’ve been looking for, but nothing concrete,” Ash admitted as they were being led out the back of the building. The area almost mirrored the front yard, but there was more field back here than there was in the front. There was also a large building off to the side with an egg above the door.

“Any of them you are wanting the most?”

Ash bit his lip as he thought over the options he had narrowed down before deciding on one. “Do you have any ghost types?” he asked as they came to a stop.

“I’ve got a couple of Drifloons, a Duskull, a Shuppet, a Golett, and a Phantump,” Burt said as he pointed to the pokémon. There were two balloon like pokémon, a small mask covered ghost, one that looked like a All Spirit’s Eve decoration he and his mother made once when he was little, a small statue, and a small tree stump with eyes.

“Can I spend some time out here? Just to see if I connect with any of them?” Ash asked as he saw the Phantump flip in the air while the Duskull chuckled at it.

“Of course! Do be careful my boy,” Burt warned, “They like to play pranks. Especially the Duskull and the Shuppet.”

Ash nodded as the two, Alain and Burt, left him to go speak inside. Ash took a deep breath as he approached the group slowly, but with sure steps. He didn’t know how the pokémon would react, and he didn’t want to take any chances.

“Hello,” Ash said softly as he had the group's attention from when he approached, “My name is Ash and this is Pikachu.”

The teen sat down on the ground and let Pikachu out of his arms and onto the ground. The little mouse looked at the ghosts and let out a chitter before walking over. Ash watched as Pikachus’ ears twitched for a moment before his tail whipped back and forth. He chuckled a bit as the small Shuppet flipped into the air and was quick to get Pikachu to play with them.

As Pikachu played with the ghosts Ash couldn’t help but look around the area at the many pokémon around. It was really peaceful here and Ash could see why Surge liked this place. It was obvious the man inside took really good care of this place and he could only hope that the person that took over for Burt took care of the pokémon just as well as he did.

Ash must have sat there for what felt like hours as the sun had crossed the sky and was beginning to lower behind the trees. A few of the pokémon had gotten curious about him and now he was leaning against a tree with several sleeping creatures on him. He didn’t dare move even though his bladder was full and his legs were numb. It was a rule. When a pokémon falls asleep in your lap you’re not allowed to move.

Looking over at the ghosts he honestly could feel himself taking one of them. None of them approached him and he didn’t approach them. None of them would have fit in with his family and he didn’t want to take one just because. It wouldn’t be fair to them or to him.

Taking a deep breath Ash closed his eyes for a moment before opening them back up. He could feel something here. It was like he knew one of the pokémon here would be coming back with him, but he didn’t know which one it was. It wasn’t any of them on his lap, and it wasn’t any of the ghosts or flying types in the trees.

Letting out a sigh he closed his eyes again and slowly fell into meditation. He wondered if it was Aura that was telling him which pokémon to take, but he wasn’t trained in how to use it. His lack of knowledge and training honestly frustrated him.

For a brief moment as his eyes were closed he could see small tendrils of blue invading the dark hue of his eyelids. From what Sir Aaron had written in his journal the blue coloration was Aura, but this was just the very basic of what Aura could do. Even an untrained Aura user could see these tendrils.

He saw the tendrils connecting to his pokémon from him and another extending out towards the tree line before stopping right beside a tree. Ash opened his eyes and blinked a bit to get them into focus before looking over to look at what the Aura tendril was leading him to.

Floating there were two swords with each sword having a dark red blade and a gray hilt. Embedded into each hilt is a single, yellow gem with a dark center that appears to be an eye. Attached to each pummel was a long, dark blue sash with a yellow swirl pattern on the tip with the tip of the sashes split into four tassels.

The sword like creature had two sheathes that are attached to a plaque. The sheathes are varying shades of gray with lines forming a triquetra pattern across the front. Near the top of each sheath are red teeth-like markings and rings with red centers that resemble eyes. A third ring extends onto the hilt that encircles the actual eye.

The creature just seemed to be staring at him from the other side of the clearing and Ash just stared right back. Ash blinked a few times when his eyes became dry, but after the third blink the creature was gone. The teen let out a small hum as he looked around for the pokémon, but he couldn’t see it anywhere.

The creature was gone.


End file.
